When Good Girls Go Bad
by K-promises-fall
Summary: Just my ways of turning Hinata evil. Through emotional distress, loss, suffering and other stuff. What is an evil Hinata like...? Read to find out. First chapter is written very differently from others. Gets less funny after.
1. Rejection I

**When Good Girls Go Bad**

Summary: This will be my shortest summary ever! Take a timid Hinata, make her brave, and turn her evil. What do you get?

Kill Kaoru: Hello my loyal followers/ reviewers. This is going to be my greatest Naruto fan fic ever written so far. You don't have to worry much about it taking long to update because I have already written the entire story in my book. All I need to do is extend the storyline, type it over and make a few modifications. This is going to be awesome I will be looking forward to your support and reviews and if I don't get any after the first, maybe, 3 chapters I'll just stop writing the story. I'll just apologize for my bad grammar from now, but don't let that spoil the story! Read on readers! Read on and review! Review as if your life depends on it! This story's life does!

By the way, everyone in this story is 13, except for Sasuke and Kiba who are 14, and Neji who is 15. Just in case you are an idiot like Naruto,( not that I hate Naruto) Hiashi is obviously older. But who cares about his age.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. I might wish I do but I don't. If I did I would be getting paid for writing this and a few pairing would already be made in it. So… now you know.

O O O

Chapter 1: Rejection I

Hinata slowly sat up in her bed, shielding her eyes from the blinding sunlight that was making its way past the lightly coloured lavender curtains which were supposed to keep the blinding rays away. After a few moments her eyes adjusted to the light and she put her hand down leaning against the headboard of her queen-sized bed for support as she put her hands in her lap and entwined them. Normally she would have been out of bed already and downstairs but something about today seemed different. It felt like something bad was going to happen that couldn't be reversed. Pushing the feeling aside, Hinata shifted her legs over the side of the bed and stayed like that for a few seconds before getting off and going to take a bath. Hinata opened her room door and walked out, locking the door behind her.

Neji also got out of his room. It was a little further down the corridor from Hinata's room and it was closer to the bathroom. Hinata continued to walk down the corridor, shrinking away from Neji as he sent a look of hated at her as they passed each other. Neji quickly went down the staircase, leaving Hinata staring at him unsure of what she ever did to make him hate her so much. Turning back around Hinata finished her walk to the bathroom. She did not bother to knock since she and her little sister were the only persons to use this bathroom and her sister never woke up early on Saturday mornings. Neji had his own bathroom in his room and Hiashi's room along with his bathroom was on the storey above this one. Hinata locked the bathroom door and undressed herself, taking a quick bath. She put on an oversized T-shirt and walked back to her room where she put on her normal clothes and combed her hair. The feeling that something was out of place still lingered but she continued to ignore it and went downstairs.

Hiashi was in the living room reading a novel and Neji was at the table twirling chopsticks in whatever was in his bowl. Hinata stopped and gave a small bow to Hiashi while saying, "Good morning father." Hiashi gave a small smile and answered with a nod and quick "Good morning." Hinata walked passed the table and softly said, "G-good morning Neji." Neji only glared at her before returning to whatever it was he was doing. In all truth, Neji had no reason to hate Hinata, and he didn't. All that he hated was that he was forced to protect her and he did try not to glare at her, but old habits die hard.

Hinata entered the kitchen and made some coffee. _(A/N: Ha! I made a 13 year old drink coffee. Hehehe…) _When it was ready she poured some in a cup and drank it. Washing the things she had added to the sink before leaving.

The streets were mostly empty, due to the fact that it was minutes to seven on a Saturday morning. The only people Hinata saw were opening their shops and preparing for the onslaught of customers later on in the day. She was going to the training grounds to meet Kiba. He had wanted to tell her something important and it seemed really urgent when he had asked her. She was early to the 10 o' clock meeting but she always came to the training grounds in the early morning. It gave her a chance to train by herself without having to try and impress anyone. She could make mistakes without anyone seeing and correct them without someone telling her what to do and making her feel worthless. She looked at the sky, taking in the way the dark blue melted into light blue, with mixtures of orange and yellow reflecting on clouds as the sun began to make its appearance.

Three and a half hours later Kiba arrived with Akamaru barking happily on his head and few villagers yelling at him from their windows tell him to keep his dog quiet because they were trying to sleep. Nothing different from any other morning apart from the bouquet of flowers he was running with.

O O O

Soon after Hinata left Neji stood up from the table and put his bowl in the sink. Actually the whole time it seemed as if he was twirling something in it, the bowl was empty. He washed up the bowl and left leaving Hiashi alone in the living room still reading his novel.

OOO

That was a weird sight- Kiba with flowers. Fine, maybe it wasn't weird. It was actually kind of cute, but Kiba always claimed that he could date any girl in the village that he wanted so what did he need flowers for. Maybe that's what he wanted to talk to her about. Maybe Kiba liked some girl and asking her out made him really nervous so he wanted to ask her for some advice. But why would he ask her? She never got asked out before. She can't even confess to the person she liked that she liked him. Maybe the flowers weren't for a girl… Maybe one of his relatives was dead and he was going to visit their grave after he told her what was so important. Maybe she was just jumping to conclusions. It wasn't really her business to know why Kiba had flowers with him. Was it?

Kiba stopped running and walked the rest of the way towards Hinata. Akamaru barked and Kiba looked up at him telling him something in return. "Ummm… Kiba-kun?" Kiba stopped talking to Akamaru and looked at Hinata. "Oh, sorry. Good morning Hinata." Kiba scratched the back of his head, but Hinata couldn't tell if it was apologetic or out of nervousness. "I-It's okay Kiba-kun. What is it that you wanted to tell me?"

Kiba seemed to turn pale. That must have been some real nerve-wrecking news. So Hinata tried another angle. "Who are the f-flowers for?"

His appearance didn't change but he started to talk at least. "Umm… well you see…" the paleness was replaced by a blush. "They- They're for…I mean…there's something… no…" He let out a groan.

Hinata stared at him weirdly. The only time she had seen Kiba act like this was when Shino and herself had caught him coming out an R- rated movie. That was when they had found out how much of a hentai Kiba really was. She suppressed the laughter that threatened to escape on remembering how Kiba had acted when they had caught him. "You know Kiba-kun, y-you don't have to tell me, if you don't want to."

"No! I mean… what I'm trying to say is that, well… Hinata…umm… I think I… no wait, I really… well…"

Hinata stared at him waiting which only seemed to make him even more nervous. "I… well I…" he let out another groan. "Dammit!"

"K-Kiba-kun are you sure you…" She was cut off by Kiba shouting, "Yes!"

"You see Hinata… I… well I… Hell with it!" He held out the flowers to her, swallowed his gut, closed his eyes and quickly said, "Hinata I think I love you!" Hinata just stared. This was awkward, more than awkward.

Unknown to the two ninjas, Neji was in the tree watching and hearing everything. His chakra was masked so he didn't have to worry about them finding him. Shino soon appeared beside him, his chakra also was also masked. They spoke in whispers. Neji looked at Shino for a brief moment before looking back at the scene taking place in front of him. "We should have brought popcorn." Shino glanced at Neji. "Why?"

"I never thought my cousin's affairs were so interesting to watch. Remind me to kill that dog boy after this though."

Hinata still stood there. She was shocked to say the least. This was Kiba. He was like a brother to her, not a person she wanted to be in a relationship with. Just a brother.

Kiba stood there, dreading what her answer could be but wanting to hear it all the same. At least if she said no he would know that he had enough courage to ask right? "Well?"

"K-Kiba-kun I… don't know what to say…"

"I am kind of hoping that you will say, 'I've been waiting forever to here you say that 'cause I love you too'."

Hinata looked at the ground. She didn't want to see his reaction to what she was about to say. "Kiba-kun, I…"

oo

Neji and Shino leaned over a little more to hear better, and out of anticipation.

oo

"Kiba-kun, I-I'm sorry… but I don't l-like you like that."

Kiba's arm lowered to his side. She said no, and it hurt. He could feel his heart shatter and fall into some kind of empty void in which only sorrow, pain and darkness could be found. Maybe he was being a little too overdramatic because all this soon changed to anger. "B-But WHY!"

Hinata felt even worse now. Guilt rising. "B-because I… I l-like someone else." Her voice came out really soft as if she was afraid to say anything at all, which she was.

"Who? I'm way better than him. I'll fight for you and protect you! I would jump off a cliff if you asked me to! Hell, if you like cats I'd by you a cat! Who could be better for you than me!"

oo

Shino was secretly crying behind his glasses. It was like some romance movie that just made you feel like you were the one being rejected by the one you love. Neji almost fell off the branch. This was just like volume 47 of Icha Icha Paradise, only they weren't doing 'stuff'. It's not like he was pervert right? He just happened to have gotten volumes 1 to 10 from his pervert uncle and it was actually interesting to read. It's not his fault if he "accidentally" asked his uncle to send him the rest of the volumes as they came out. He was the victim. Exactly, now back to Hinata.

oo

Hinata lowered her head and started using her fingers to poke each other. Still feeling Kiba's intense gaze on her, demanding her to answer his question she gave in unknowingly. Saying it over and over in her sub-conscience until it accidentally came out of her mouth. "I-I love Naruto-kun." It was so soft but they were all ninjas so everyone heard it clearly enough.

As a result Neji fell out of the tree laughing. Landing on his back with a thud and rolling around, trying to keep his hysterics under control. Hinata saw him and blushed really hard. Kiba ignored him, his anger getting the better of him. "NARUTO! That damn retard! How could you choose him over me?"

"Don't call Naruto-kun a retard KIBA!"

All eyes were on Hinata in shock. Neji even manage dot stop laughing as he looked at his usually quiet cousin. Hinata realizing what she just did blushed. "…Gomen."

"Hinata I…" Kiba dropped the flowers and walked away. There was no use in fighting it out. He had lost.

There was long pause as he walked away everyone looking at him with sad eyes filled with pity.

Someone could be heard crying and the two Hyuugas looked up the tree to Shino who was wiping his eyes with his sleeve. Neji looked at him in disbelief. Was he actually crying? As if reading his mind Shino said, "Gomen nasai, ignore me. I'm a little too over emotional far my own good."

The two Hyuugas looked at him questioningly._ 'Emotional? You can keep a straight face if you lost your arm in battle."_

O O O

A/N: Yo! How did you like the first chapter? Anyways, let me just clear this up. The 'uncle' Neji was talking about isn't Hiashi. It isn't even his real uncle. Just someone you are forced to call uncle because your parents/guardians think it's respectful.

I also apologize if I made any of you guys laugh when you felt that you weren't supposed to. I have a tendency to put a few comedy scenes in my stories. Its like my signature or something. The next chapter might be another funny, it depends on my mood. Later chapters will be more serious though. I should know. I already wrote the story. All I have to do is type it over onto my computer an upload it. But do not be fooled! As a favour to you I am also extending the length of the chapters. Plus I have other stories that I'm working on. Wait... I already told you that. Oh well! **Review! REVIEW NOW!**

Toodles! ;) ;)


	2. Rejection II

As you can see I changed my name… Anyways, we have reached chapter 2. What more can I do to ruin Hinata's life? Or maybe you are wandering what I think I did to ruin her life. It is time my dear children. Everything shall be explained in time. All in due time. (dark chuckle)

I apologize for the long wait… but this is one of my least favourite chapters. At first I tried my original method of waiting for inspiration to come to me, but it didn't work. So I'm trying method number 2; force myself to write it. I do this for you so the least you can do is review. I don't care if you tell me to burn in hell just review. Flames are welcome. Besides I'm a fire bender. Hahahahaha

Now I am happy to know that I got 4 reviews on the same day that I posted this story and four more afterwards, followed by two more later on. (sniffs) Thank you. It means (sniffs again) so much. Now on with part 2!!!

**Warning: Highly emotional and over psychotic people should take care when reading this story. Why am I writing this you ask? I let my friend read this, and she chased me all over the place and kept hitting me in the head with my own book, and that was before I rewrote it. This chapter might confuse you. My friends are crazy…**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto… yadda yadda yadda…

'_thoughts'_

OOO

Shino jumped down from the tree, joining Neji on the ground. Neji got up and dusted off his close and then looked towards his cousin. She looked like she was going to die of guilt and it was a wander why she had not run after him and told Kiba that she did love him but was just too nervous to tell him the truth, just to get rid of the guilt. Even though she would have felt even guiltier for breaking his heart then lying to him.

Shino walked towards her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She was just too fragile. That is why Neji is so hard on her. She can't be a ninja if she stays the same way that she is now. She has to be able to make quick decisions and not regret it. A ninja is a tool. They work, they kill, they get paid and they leave. It was not her destiny to become a ninja, but she still is one. So it was up to him to either break her down until she quits or be proved wrong like he had been in the chuunin exams.

Hinata looked up at Shino for a brief moment before returning her gaze to the ground. She broke Kiba's heart, but what else could she have done? She liked Kiba, but not that way. Would he be okay? _'What if he tells Naruto what I said?!!!'_

"Don't worry Hinata. I'm sure he won't tell." _'His pride won't let him.' _Shino completed in his mind. "I'm sure he'll be just fine. He's known for bouncing back quickly."

Neji got an idea. He smirked and put on a serious face before walking towards the two, making sure that he did not look like he cared about what just happened. "Kiba just did what he thought he had to do, just that he was rejected." Hinata and Shino looked at him, the former wincing when he said rejected.

"Unlike other people that I know he actually told the person how he felt. Unlike you." He glared at Hinata and watched as she shivered slightly. "Kiba should very well tell Naruto that you like him. I don't know how you fell in love with someone like Naruto and I don't care. You once again proved how weak you are. You tell Kiba you like Naruto, don't you think Naruto himself would like to know?"

Hinata blushed deep red. Shino sighed and removed his hand from her shoulder. "He is right Hinata-chan. I may not be very good at relationships or things that have to do with someone liking another person, but I doubt it would be good if Naruto found out from someone else. It would be even worse if you waited too long and you end up losing your chance for good."

Hinata looked at the two of them. "Ummm… I forgot, f-father wanted me to…l-look after Hanabi for the day… so I have to go now."

Neji scoffed making Hinata pause in her escape. "I knew it. You're afraid. You really are worthless." Shino glared at Neji from behind his glasses, but Neji was unfazed and continued, "Go ahead and run away. I don't care what Naruto said about you, you are weak."

Neji turned and headed into the forest.

Hinata watched him go. She did not like to admit it but he was right. She was weak. _'So why does Naruto-kun say that I am strong?' _Everyone else thought she was weak. Some did not admit it but they all thought it, and they were right. Why did Naruto say she was strong? Was it to make her feel better about herself- boost her confidence? Maybe it was just pity. Maybe he just said so to make her feel better about herself. Maybe she really was as pathetic as everyone said she was. Maybe Neji was right. Se could not change. She was the weak heir to the Hyuuga clan and she would always be the weak heir. _'I will just get in the way of missions and hold everyone back.'_

O O O

Hinata walked past various people too busy with their lives to notice the small depressed girl that passed them muttering various apologies. An aura of depression seemed to follow her as she made her way through the crowd unnoticed. She kept her gaze on the ground not daring to look up at those who did notice her, because of she did she would see eyes full of pity and she hated that. There weren't many things she hated most would think that she did not have it in her to hate, but she did. She hated the looks of pity she received, she hated the way her family treated her, she hated the fact that nothing seemed to go right with her life and she hated herself for submitting to everything and cowering in fear of everyone.

A loud all-too-familiar voice broke her out of her trance and caused her to stop frozen. "Oy!! Mr. Chef another bowl of miso ramen, please!!"

'_Naruto?' _She finally looked up and noticed that she was walking on the road that took her right passed Ichiraku, Naruto's favourite ramen stand, and Naruto the object of her affection and the cause of all her recent worries and depression was sitting down making his way through his seventh bowl of ramen with inhuman speed and barely and manners. Did she hate Naruto? Of course not. How could you hate and love someone at the same time. No matter how much trouble he unknowingly put her through she would never hate him. Maybe she was cursed to forever love a person would never notice her. _'What did I do to deserve this...?'_

She had two choices. Turn back and go the long way around or continue and pray he didn't notice her. Walking all the way around might get her into meeting even more people and she really just wanted to go home. Maybe not home, her father would probably make her feel even worse. She didn't want to go back to the training ground, Kiba might have gone back and Neji might still be close by. So walk straight ahead and pray it is.

Naruto noticed someone familiar walking past through the corner of his eye and momentarily stopped eating his ramen scanning his memory for her name. "Hey, Hinata! Where are you going?"

He watched as she stopped and tensed, _'Yep, she's weird. Maybe she doesn't like me. But then again she never gives me looks like the villagers so maybe she doesn't. Ahhh… Screw it all.'_

Hinata forced herself to calm down before answering him. "I-I'm n-not re-really going anywhere N-Naruto-kun."

"Really great come eat some ramen with me." He grinned and patted the seat next to him and Hinata slowly walked over and sat down on it.

"You want any ramen Hinata?"

"Ano… n-no thanks Naruto-kun. I-I already ate."

"Ok then."

Naruto took up his bowl and started eating again Hinata staring at him wondering how anyone could eat that fast. _'That's Naruto-kun for you. He's always so unpredictable.'_ She smiled at that. Naruto noticed her smile and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"N-Nothing N-Naruto-kun." There was an awkward silence between the two and Naruto was just about to start eating again when Hinata spoke up. "Ano… N-Naruto-kun…"

"Yeah?"

"Um…" _'Just say it!!!' _"W-why d-do you l-like Sa-Sakura-san?"

"Why I… like Sakura…"

"Umm… gomen. You d-don't ha-have to answer. I-It's y-your business."

"No I want to answer."

(A/N: During this explanation all thoughts are Hinata's. Just so you know.)

Naruto put the bowl back down and looked up a little as if he was thinking. "Well… Sakura-chan is beautiful," Hinata stopped looking at him from right there and lowered her head so that her eyes were hidden. _'Unlike me, I'm not beautiful…' _"She's smart…" _'I'm not…' _"She's brave…" _'I can't even say two words without stuttering.' _"And… I guess I just like her for some reason but one things for sure, I'll never give up I'll win her heart and she'll forget all about Sasuke-teme."

"Do, do you think… that you'll e-ever stop l-loving her."

Naruto looked at her oddly for a while. _'Why does she sound so hurt?' _"I'm… not sure. Why do you want to know?"

"Be-Because…" _'Should I tell him… it's now or never…' _"Because… Naruto, I-I l-love y-you… f-for the longest time, I-I loved y-you…"

Naruto sat there and stared at her. She could feel his stare on her and what he was feeling at the moment seemed to roll off him in waves. Confusion, disbelief, realization, joy- quickly swallowed by sadness, then guilty. Hinata's heart skipped a beat, he felt guilty. That would only mean…

"Hinata…" _'He didn't add –chan…' _"I don't like you like that…"

"Y-you love Sa-Sakura, right?" Tears started to form in her eyes and she tried her hardest to hold them back.

"…Yes…………. Maybe" Naruto looked at the girl's small figure run away and blend into the huge crowds as if it did so naturally. He really had not wanted to break her heart. He really did, but he had to. He just didn't like her like that. He didn't like her like that, right?_ 'Maybe, I can learn to…'_

Hinata ran and ran. She barely managed to keep from bumping into anyone and those that she did bump into turned around only to see a blur flash past. She didn't even mutter her usual apologies. All that kept going through her head was, _'He loves Sakura, not me…" _She was so caught up in her situation that she didn't notice the large, obvious and extremely important object that she passed by, nor did she see the shocked looks on the ninjas' faces as she rushed past them. She just ran, and kept on running ignoring everything around her and just concentrating on running away from him…

O O O

K: Yo! I'm so proud of myself. I finished it. Yep, good job. –Pats clone on back- You did good.

Clone K: Thank you master. I aim to please.

K: They grow up so fast –cries-.

Well review. Review I say. For each review I get a cookie, and I LOVE cookies. Stage one of the story complete. On to stage 2!!!!! COOKIES!!!!!!!!!


	3. I want to train you

Well, for those of you that don't know what the large, obvious important object she passed was, it will be revealed in this chapter. Also I'm sorry if the last chapter wasn't up to standard. I tried my best and that's what came with it. But the story should run a lot smoother as long as I stick to the original plot. This story should have about 11 chapters if I decide to add the epilogue I've been thinking about. Anyway, the K clone kinda blew up so I have to write this one by myself. So sad… she was so young only a few weeks old. Now who's supposed to do my math homework and help me understand Spanish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even worse who am I going to replace myself with when my mother starts telling me to do stuff? Yes I live with my mother since I'm under 15.

**Saint:** Will you shut up!!!!!!!!!!

**K:** Saint… when did you get out?

**Saint:** I'm here to do the disclaimer and you very well know that this is my story. I thought of it and I wrote it. Copywriter!!!!!!!!

**K:** Does it matter!!!!!!! We're like the same person. You're just another of my personalities.

**Saint:** **glares**

**K:** Ummm… hehe… the… more evil one...? Don't kill me. **Runs away**

**Saint:** Sometimes I swear she is so annoying. Anyway. We don't own Naruto cause if we did Sasuke-teme would be dead and that pink haired whore would be learning a very painful lesson.

O O O

Hinata sat on one of the many branches in one of the many trees that surrounded her. She was tired, hungry and depressed. Naruto had rejected her for Sakura; the girl who never seemed to notice him and would fawn day in and day out over Uchiha Sasuke. To add to her broken state she was lost. She was surrounded by trees in one of the vast forests that surrounded Konoha. She had stopped crying and was now resting against one of the older trees. Her reason was lost. She only kept going because there was always the chance that Naruto would acknowledged her, that her clan would see her as more than a failure and Naruto was her inspiration. When he said those words it broke her heart. She couldn't even think about him anymore without becoming an emotional wreck.

Hinata shakily stood to her feet. Her hair kept her eyes hidden as she regained her balance and started running again. Her legs ached and her lungs seemed ready to blow but she kept running. She couldn't go back; she couldn't get caught. She would die before she had to face the cold stares of her family for being so weak that she ran away from her problems. It would hurt even worse because they would be right. She was running away like a coward just because she was rejected. Hinata then thought of Kiba. He was rejected too. She rejected him. He didn't run away. He just accepted it and walked away. She ran even faster. She wouldn't be able to handle seeing Kiba again after what she did to him. He probably hated her. Everyone would be disappointed. She let them all down. Hinata slipped and fell to the ground landing on her shoulder. A sharp pain came from it now. It was probably dislocated.

"No…" Her voice came out shaky and even weaker than it usually sounded. She started to cry again. Was she so weak that she could not even run away? Using her other hand, she pushed herself off the ground trying to stand. When she tried to stand on her leg though, she fell back down. It hurt. She turned so that she was on her back and sat up looking at her ankle. A bruise was starting to form and it would probably start swelling later on. She must have twisted her ankle when she fell too. She could no longer run. So she sat there crying her eyes out. Was this her fate? To die knowing that the one thing she really wanted to do she could not do it. If her purpose in life was to fail, why was she born in the first place?

A cold wind seemed to wrap around her and she let herself fall limply back unto the ground. It was her way of admitting defeat as she stared almost lifelessly up at the gray clouds that showed through the leaves. It started to rain, but unlike most showers it started out heavy. It stung where it hit her exposed skin but she only winced once before she became used to its feel. It didn't take long for her to be drenched on the water as gravity seemed to keep her glued to the ground thanks to her now extremely heavy wet jacket. She closed her eyes intending to never open them again.

O O O

Tsunade had a migraine. She was currently doing paper work, making her way through the stack of papers that never seemed to end. To make it worse, nothing in it seemed to be anything of any significance. It was all just boring, financial crap that needed reviewing and her signature. _'What kind of disease did I contract to make me agree to this job…' _Then she thought about it more, _'Right… I was infected by a blond haired Kyuubi container who reminded me of my brother and through his stupid rambling of being Hokage managed to make me take the dumb job… DAMN YOU NARUTO!!!!!!'_

Tsunade sighed and was about to reach under her desk for her emergency sake when a chuunin barged inside her office panicking and trying to tell her something between hasty gasps for air. Tsunade felt her eyebrow twitch slightly. She could not understand a thing this guy was telling her and it was making her migraine worse. "**DAMN IT, CALM DOWN AND TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG BEFORE I THROW YOU OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**"

Said chuunin immediately stopped talking for fear of his life and took in some forced deep breaths while Tsunade rubbed her temple trying to calm her now pounding head. Giving up she now looked at the young man in front of her realizing he was waiting for her permission to speak. "Well, what do you want?"

"Hokage-sama, Hyuuga Hinata was spotted…" He seemed to trail of here, which annoyed Tsunade even more.

"Yeah, so? If this was a waste of my time I swear I will-"

"She was spotted leaving the village." He quickly added not wanting to upset her further. Tsunade stared at him and all of Konoha and some surrounding villages heard what she said next.

"**_WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_**"

O O O

Hinata opened her eyes, blinking a few times to see properly. Someone was standing over her and he had pupil-less almost white eyes. A Hyuuga. Hinata then remembered what happened, the current situation she was in registering in her mind. She tried to stand up but she was too tired, so instead she closed her eyes.

"Open your eyes, I know you're awake."

His voice was so commanding. Reluctantly Hinata opened her eyes. He seemed to relax a bit and his voice was much softer than before. "Can you stand?"

Hinata slowly shook her head in a silent no. The stranger sighed then bent down and took her up bridal style and made his way through the forest. Hinata was panicking. Who was this guy? Where was he bringing her? Probably Konoha. And if he was a Hyuuga how come she had never seen him before? Then Hinata's mind seemed slow to a stop as she realized, she didn't care. If he took her back to Konoha, or took her to be experimented on, she didn't care. She would die anyways. Hinata relaxed and closed her eyes again falling into another dreamless sleep.

This did not go unnoticed by the person carrying her. He frowned, _'What have they done to you in those seven years Hinata-chan?' _He watched as she took shallow breaths and his frown only deepened and his eyes glazed over as he paused on a branch and stood there. Anyone who saw him right then and there would know he was remembering something extremely bad. His lip twitched slightly and a small smirk gradually formed. His grip on the sleeping girl tightened and he started to run again, the small smirk still on his lips.

O O O

Hinata was sitting up on a bed in an unfamiliar room. She was wearing a gray shirt that was way too big for her and black shorts. Many questions were running through her tired mind like; Why was she here? Where was she? Did that guy from the forest bring her here? Was she in Konoha? Was she still unconscious and this was just what her subconscious looks like? She quickly dismissed that thought.

Hinata sneezed. _'Great… I'm sick to top it all off. Why can't I just die and get it over with.' _The door opened slightly and the man from before peered inside, smiling when he saw that Hinata was awake. He came inside balancing a tray with your everyday breakfast (A/N: Use your imagination) on his palm. Hinata looked at him with dead eyes and when he saw them he couldn't help but frown. Sighing he lay the tray in her lap, and then sat down on the chair next to her bed. Hinata looked at the food on the tray in her lap wandering if she should eat it. It could be poisoned, but then why bring her all the way here just to kill her with poison when he could have just as well had killed her when he found her laying on the grass. Sighing she ate quietly not saying anything and he watched her and carried away the tray when she was done.

He came back after a while and sat down in the same chair looking at her again, shifting uncomfortably in his chair when she looked at him. Finally he spoke in that same calm voice. "Want to tell me why you ran away from Konoha?" Hinata looked at him shocked. Why should he care, and that was exactly what she asked him, "Why do you care?" He didn't answer, watching as she lay back down and turned, her back facing him feigning sleep. Listening to the man's footsteps as he stood up and walked out of the room Hinata did not shed a tear until she heard the soft click of the door locking. Then the tears ran freely as her body with each sob and sharp intake of breath. The pillow being her only comfort she squeezed it hard as her tears dampened it.

This happened day after day. He would come in with breakfast watch her eat bring the tray back outside then come back and ask her the same question only to get the same response and hear the muffled sobs coming from her room after he left.

O O O

Tsunade sat inside her office rubbing her aching temples with two fingers each. After hearing about Hinata's leaving her migraine only seemed to get worse, something she had thought was impossible. In her office stood the rookie nine, their senseis as well as team Gai. She had just informed them of Hinata's leaving the village and the different responses were what made her hand twitch and head for the bottle of sake under her desk.

When they heard the news Ino, Chouji, Sakura (A/N: coughcoughbitchcough), Neji and Lee were shocked that Hinata- their sweet innocent little Hinata would leave, Shino seemed indifferent, Sasuke didn't seem to care, Kiba was ranting angrily making Akamaru whimper in slight fear of his master's mood and Naruto was… Now Naruto's reaction caught her interest. His shoulders were slumped and he hung his head hiding his eyes and an ominous cloud of gloom seemed to hang over his head. Before she could ask him anything though, Sasuke turned and walked towards the door past a near crying Kurenai and an emotionless and slightly intrigued Kakashi. "And where are you going Sasuke?" Sasuke stopped and forced himself to turn and face the Hokage. "I'm leaving plain and simple. Hinata's leaving is of no interest to me. She was weak and a pitiful ninja. Personally I say good riddance."

The entire room was quiet when he said that. Kiba's eye twitched uncontrollably and his fists shook as his anger built up towards the Uchiha. He never got to hit Sasuke as everyone's eyes went wide when Naruto punched Sasuke in the cheek sending him flying back and hitting into the very door he was going to leave through. Naruto lifted up Sasuke by the collar of his shirt pressing him back against the door and in a strained voice slowly through grinding teeth said, "Dammit Sasuke you never know when to just shut the hell up. Don't EVER call Hinata-chan weak ever again bastard."

Sasuke refusing to feel threatened by the dead last forced Naruto's hand to let go and smirked. "I'm just telling the truth. You saw her fight against Neji in the exams, and I watched the video. It was PATHETIC. I don't even know why she became a ninja. Must be a shame to have such a weak person as a heiress. She doesn't deserve that bloodline; her use of it was pathetic." He took no note of Kiba's building anger as he was held back by Shino, nor the way Naruto shook clenching and unclenching his fist. His smirk only grew wider. "She had that annoying stutter anytime she talked and always hid herself behind that dumb jacket." "Sasuke…" Naruto's voice was dangerously low but Sasuke did not care, thinking he was stronger than the dobe. "She was a coward." "Sasuke shut up." "She was a failure." "Dammit Sasuke shut up." "She was an embarrassment to everyone around her." "DAMMIT SASUKE SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!" Naruto's fist was caught by Kakashi who held it firm and away from Sasuke's smirking face even as it trembled with anger and red chakra started forming around it holding it back with his own chakra. "She was-" "Sasuke that's enough." Listening to his sensei Sasuke stopped not wanting to make the jounin angry. Instead he opened the door and walked out locking the door behind him.

When Sasuke left Kakashi let go of Naruto's fist and walked back to where he was standing. Naruto put his clenched fist down and walked over to a chair in the darker corner of the room flipping it the other way and sitting on it chest against the back of the chair. Everyone watched him for awhile the tension not leaving the room. No one spoke for a while. "It's not true…" Lee's unusually soft voice broke through the tension stating what was on all of their minds. "What he said… it wasn't true."

O O O

Hinata had been at the ninja's house for over a week and as usual he just asked that same question, Hinata could not take it anymore. She turned around on the bed to face him. He was calm, and patient, extremely patient, and she did not like it. "Why are you staring at me?"

He looked her in the eyes and answered, "Why do you care?"

Hinata's eyes narrowed. "I don't." Then she turned her back to him again, signaling that she did not want to talk. He took no notice though. "If you don't care why did you ask?" Hinata didn't move. "Does it bother you?" Still she remained quiet. "I don't think that you would have asked if you didn't care. You would have stayed silent."

"I don't care about anything… or anyone. Never again."

There was another long silence, and then he chuckled causing Hinata to look at him in surprise. Her surprise turned to anger. _'What's he laughing about?' _"What's so funny?"

He quieted down, a grin on his face. "You're trying so hard."

"I'm not trying to do anything."

"We both know that's a lie. I know you… Well, I know your type. It's impossible for you to not care. Caring… about things and people… it's in your blood."

"No its- You don't know me."

"Hyuuga Hinata, heiress… former heiress of the great Hyuuga clan, oldest daughter of the current leader, Hyuuga Hiashi. Said to be the clan failure, mostly known for her gentleness where most Hyuuga are boastful and cold… You are meek aren't you?" He added the last part with another faint chuckle, which made Hinata glare.

"I- I'm not weak."

"Her trademark stutter; most say that if she doesn't stutter, it's someone else henged into her."

Hinata chose to keep quiet. Her stutter was coming back so talking would only make her look weak. She turned her head back around and rested it on the pillow, trying to ignore the grinning ninja looking at her.

"What's wrong? Don't want to talk anymore?" She stayed quiet. "I guess I should introduce myself then. I am Hyuuga Hajime. You probably don't know me but I know you and… well, Konoha doesn't seem to be after me anymore and I'm bored so… I was hoping that you would allow me to train you."

Hinata didn't answer. "You are a bit weak for someone your age; I just thought that I could train you so you can get stronger. My way of training is very different from your father's. You don't have to stay when you're done training. If you want you could even go back to Konoha and show them that you aren't some weak little girl. So?" He waited for a while but Hinata did not look as if she was going to answer him so he gave up. He stood up from the chair he was sitting on. "Just think about it okay?" After saying that he walked towards the door only stopping when he heard Hinata murmur something. "What did you say?"

Hinata sat up and glared at him. "I'm n-not weak."

Hajime smiled at that. "We're going to have to work on that stutter of yours. It isn't very intimidating." His smile grew wider when she frowned and he walked out the door.

Hinata glared daggers at the door where Hajime once stood before lying back down. She didn't like him, but he was giving her a place to stay and get stronger. She didn't plan on going back to Konoha, why should she? No one over there cared. They don't deserve to see how great she would be. She would get stronger. She would prove to that blond idiot that she was better than Sakura and then when he starts chasing after her he _will_ see what it's like to be looked over and denied; him and the rest of the village.

O O O

Saint: Sorry if to the end it got a little rushed. I was getting really annoyed so I decide to just get straight to the point, and to do that I let… K over there **points to K-promises-fall whimpering in the far corner** write the ending. I wanted to get this chapter done in time for Christmas but that didn't work out. So consider it a late New Year's present. Anyway, phase two of the transformation of Hinata to evil has started and its about time too.

**IMPORTANT**

**I am not sure if I should write chapters about her training. I never really put it in the original story for the sake of my poor hand so if you want to see her training you have to tell me. If you do decide you want to see it, it will make the story longer than I originally intended and I'll have a lot of thinking to do, but it would be worth it. _SO TELL ME IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE TRAINING WHEN YOU REVIEW… AND I DO EXPECT YOU TO REVIEW._**

Right K?

K: Y-yeah. Right Saint.


	4. Mission I

I'm hurt. I'm real hurt. Where are all my wonderful readers? How am I supposed to find inspiration if I've been forgotten? Are you all mad at me? If you are, I am really, REALLY, **_REALLY_**, sorry. PLEASE FORGIVE ME. I NEED YOUR WONDERFUL REVIEWS. If I don't get them… I'll give up on the story and update one of my others. Trust me; I have many to choose from. Or I could finish… continue (I'm no where near the end) my Teen Titans ff, A Story with No Title.

_**SO PLEASE PEOPLE, REVIEW!!!!! THE CONTINUATION OF THIS STORY DEPENDS ON YOU!!!!**_

…

…

…

…

_**THAT IS ALL.**_

The training will start next chapter as promised… or maybe the chapter after. It depends if I split this chapter in two like I had originally done.

**Saint: **Now that we got that over and done with, here is chapter… four. Oh, and we don't own Naruto cause if we did, Sakura would have had an "accident"; no more pink hair. She would have to wear a hat. That is how much I hate her. BEWARE THE TIME LEAP.

OOO

It had been one year; one year since she left, one year since Hajime offered to train her and she accepted, one year since she last called herself weak, one year since she last thought about Naruto. She had continued to cry herself to sleep for the first few months of her training, but that never meant she actually thought about… him. She just cried. Never thought about it, only knew there was an ache in her heart, and crying seemed to be the only way to make it go away, even if it was only a temporary solution.

Hinata frowned while sitting down, legs crossed in a meditative position. Why was she thinking about him now? It made no sense. Hinata had changed a lot in those cruel months. Hajime had pushed her to the limit; making it so that she perfected the Hyuuga stance as well as some of the special moves, like the kaiten, and 64 palms of Hakke. It had taken half of the year to do that and she was not happy. It was taking too long. Hajime had noticed this as well and came to a conclusion. After those six months he focused less on the traditional Hyuuga techniques and started teaching her a different fighting style. He did not know much about it, so the learning process was slow. He said that he new a master of the style and was trying to find her so she could teach her, so Hinata waited. To pass the next few months he had increased her weights which she had to wear from the beginning of the year, and focused mostly on her speed and agility. He also made her do various activities before and after their training to increase her stamina and chakra as well as improve her chakra control. Sure she had good control, but Sakura had better control than she did. When she was done training, Sakura would not be better than her at anything, she would make sure.

Hinata's daily schedule consisted of getting up before dawn, running 50- 100 laps around the estate- which was HUGE, climbing the tallest tree in the surrounding forest, which was about 150 feet high, and sitting upside down on the highest branch and reading a few scrolls while staying in that position for the next 2- 3 hours until Hajime showed up. Then she would walk back down the tree, with her weights on- which made her feel like gravity was trying to pull her arms out of their sockets and drag her down very painfully to the earth. When she came down Hajime would have breakfast ready for her and they would eat. After eating she would go back to the tree climb back up their and meditate, upside down again, then punch the tree 500 times- upside down still, and kick it 300 times with each leg. By that time her chakra would be on its reserve and she would stumble down the tree's bark, sometimes slipping completely only for Hajime to catch her, other times slipping and having a very painful reunion with the earth and other times making it only to pass out once her foot touched solid ground.

Hajime would give her fifteen minutes to rest then force her to punch another tree- right side up and on solid ground thankfully, 800 times and kick it 600 times with each leg. If Hinata did not pass out right after she would meditate for the next three hours. Hinata kept falling asleep while meditating until the eighth month when Hajime finally got tired of her incompetence and poured ice cold water over her. It would not have been as bad, but he had forced her to stop wearing her jacket. So now she wore a sleeveless light lavender shirt and black Capri with a fishnet shirt underneath. So when the frigid water hit her unprotected arms and soaked easily through her shirt she felt like she was in frozen hell and when the water met the thin, fishnet Hinata almost started to spasm, and soon lost all the feeling in her chest and arms; no one ever told her that not being able to feel your arms would be painful. Since then Hinata never fell asleep while meditating ever again.

After meditating Hajime would start working with her on ninjutsu or taijutsu, sparring with her afterwards until it was time for her to redo her tree exercise again. She of course never finished it, but she was getting closer and closer each time, only to pass out and wake up the next day in the room Hajime had prepared for her and start all over again.

Right now she was meditating. Small cuts covered her from when she fell and was scraped by many branches before being able to grab one of them and tiredly walk down the last few feet before passing out. During her meditation she was supposed to use her senses, excluding sight, to get a feeling of what her surroundings are like. Hajime had told her that one of the flaws of the Hyuuga is that they depend on their eyes, so while she was meditating she was to concentrate on her surroundings and everything that happened during the 2 or 3 hours she was meditating. After meditation she would tell him everything that she noticed and he would tell her if watch she noticed did happen or if she was wrong and what she missed. Then while training he would give her tips on how to get a better feel of everything. She was making steady progress noticing more and more each day.

She had been meditating for an hour now, or maybe it was an hour and a half, when Hajime called her. Opening one eye and looking at him she answered, "Yes Hajime sensei?"

Hajime, who was sitting under the shade of a tree, walked over to her, making Hinata open her other eye and look at him questioningly. "We're going to have to cut you training short today." She was just about to ask why but he beat her to it. "We have a mission." Nodding in understanding Hinata stood and followed him into the house to get cleaned up before going to get their mission report.

Other than training Hinata had learned more about her teacher/saviour. She was right about him being a Hyuuga and from the Hidden Leaf; he had left when she was three about two weeks before she had been kidnapped. When she asked him why, he said because he did not like the way the clan was led and how the clan members acted. Secretly Hinata thought there was more to it than that, but she never asked deciding to respect his privacy. She also learned that she was closer to him than she thought, since in the third week of her training she had learned that he was her second cousin. When she had perfected the Hyuuga stance, he had started bringing her along with him on missions. Technically Hajime did not belong to any village as he never felt the need to join another one, but he did missions that large villages with a small amount of ninjas needed done. His pay was higher than normal considering that he did not belong to that village and he was risking his cover being seen in the open. Some of the large ninja villagers employed him from time to time when most of their more experienced ninjas were on other missions or when they did not want to risk losing them or being found out for assassinations and such.

Hinata walked down the near empty halls of the kage tower in Oto- the Sound Village. This would be Hinata's second mission for the sound and like the first time she was here she hoped it would be her last for the village. The place had a sense of death, depression, evil and blood, lots of blood. It practically reeked of it. Most of the stench coming from locked doors in the dark corners. Hinata made sure not to activate her Byakugan, remembering what she witnessed on her first visit. Inside one of the rooms a person lay on a table sliced open with his organs taken out, either in the hands of doctors or on metal trays waiting to be looked at. In another room she had seen people chained to the walls, ranging from a sickly child to starved adults to decaying bodies. She had managed to keep from puking right then and there but she was not sure if she would be able to keep it down a second time.

They entered the room at the end of the hall and closed the door softly behind them. The room was considerably large compared to the size of the Hokage's office in the Leaf. It only seemed larger with its barren gray walls and the little furniture in the middle of the room, which consisted of a desk and chair for the village leader and two other chairs for his visitors. Kabuto was the only person in the office. Thanking Kami that she did not have to deal with the snake-guy, Orochimaru, Hinata took her seat next to Hajime and waited for him to give them the mission debriefing.

Kabuto looked up from the paperwork Orochimaru was supposed to be doing and smiled politely at the two nodding to both as he greeted them, "Hajime-san, Hinata- chan." He looked back down and moved some of the papers aside muttering, "Just one moment…" He finally found the file in one of the massive stacks and carefully pulled it from between the various folders. Sighing he got out of the seat, walked in front of the desk and sat on it. He opened to file and handed it to Hajime. While Hajime read about the mission Kabuto explained it to them. "Orochimaru-sama wants you two to help," he paused, searching for the right word, "escort his latest recruit into the village." There was a long silence until Hajime and Hinata realized that was all he planned on saying. Hajime looked up, "You know I never agree to missions with such little information Kabuto. Please, continue."

Kabuto sighed again. "It was worth a try. The person is Uchiha Sasuke, the last remaining Uchiha apart from his older brother, and killer of the entire clan, Itachi. Orochimaru-sama has plans for Sasuke and sent four of our ninjas to help him escape from the Leaf village and escort him here and another of our ninjas followed afterwards."

"So what are we supposed to do?"

"Orochimaru-sama has doubts that they will be able to bring Sasuke all the way here so he wanted to send you two, to bring Sasuke here when the others fail."

Hajime looked at Hinata who had been quiet throughout the entire debriefing. "Hinata-chan, are you okay?"

Hinata continued to look in her lap. "Naruto will be there," she said softly.

Hajime nodded, "Yes, more than likely. Do you want to do the mission?"

"Since you aren't a part of the Sound, you have the option of deciding on whether or not you want to accept," said Kabuto. "Knowing that you left the leaf… it is understandable if you don't want to take the chance of meeting your former comrades."

Hinata continued to remain silent. Hajime looked back at Kabuto. "I don't think she's ready to see them yet. I'll have to say no to the mission."

"A shame… but it's understandable."

"No."

The two males looked at Hinata. "We'll take it." She looked at Hajime, "I'll go." Hajime nodded and caught a glimpse of Kabuto's smirk before it faded into another of his fake smiles. "Great," he said. "It would be best if the two of you leave as soon as possible." Hajime nodded and he got up and walked out of the dark room, with Hinata trailing behind.

Inside the room Orochimaru stepped out of the shadows. Kabuto turned to look at his master and asked, "Are you sure you do not want to experiment on the Byakugan? Hinata-chan is getting even more skilled every day."

"True, having the Byakugan as well as the Sharingan would be beneficial… but I think Hinata-chan would be more useful if we have her to complete the more… tedious missions. Besides," he turned his slit pupils to look at Kabuto, "it would be so much more satisfying to steal the Byakugan from right under the nose of the leaf."

Kabuto smirked coldly, "Of course Orochimaru-sama. As you wish."

OOO

**K-: **I decided to make Saint stop here.

**Saint: **Make? You don't tell me how to write my story. I stop where I want to stop and I decided to stop here.

**K-: **Uh-huh… whatever. I could not bother to write anymore since school is already tiring. I would have updated this immediately, but something is wrong with my internet and we can't find out what it is. Any way…

_**Questions to Answer (since you won't review)**_

**What do you think Orochimaru is going to use Hinata for?**

**How do you think Hinata will react to seeing Naruto?**

**Will Naruto screw up again and just make Hinata angrier?**

**Should I write the training Hinata does after this mission or just have the major time leap?**

**Where are my reviewers?**

**Who do you think should be a couple? (not that your opinion really matters on this)**

**How is the story so far?**

Well that is all I have to say and ask for now. Really needing reviews here. My "want to write new chapters" bar is deathly low and I need your reviews to fill it. PLEASE, I'm BEGGING YOU!! EVEN IF IT'S JUST TO SAY "HI".


	5. Mission II

Hello yet again. I had a ton of homework plus projects to do… can you believe it?! And my End of Year Exams made everything worse!!!!! To add to everything I got banned from the computer three times!!!!!! Make that FOUR!!!!!! Plus I got bombarded with new ideas for stories and tons of inspiration to continue others so I'm writing like 14- 18 stories now AND my internet not working properly. Which SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…Any way since you probably don't care I'll just get straight to it.

I got some pretty… interesting reviews; got some different points of view that I'm going to have to work on and tons of love. **Cries tears of joy**… well some of your questions can't be answered until the very end for fear of ruining the story's ending. But until then keep guessing. Sorry for the long wait me and Saint couldn't decide how to start off the story. But we finally came upon an agreement and decided to stay focused on Hinata. ……………………… Dammit Saint, do the disclaimer already!

**Saint:** …**glares at K. **Do your own disclaimer. I'm trying to figure out what to write to make this chapter more interesting. This story needs more action. SO BUZZ OFF!!!!!

**K: **Jeez… You're such a sourpuss. Fine. I… _we_ **motions to multiple personalities in background **do not own Naruto. Hinata does and she has the right to cause him pain for ignoring her for that pink haired bitch.

OOO

Hinata ran through the forest along side Hajime. They were travelling at a rapid but leisurely pace, Hajime with his Byakugan active. He had told Hinata not to activate her Byakugan on the account of they did not know who would be sent after the Uchiha and she might need all of her chakra and strength. _'I've grown a lot, but I'm still nothing compared to Hajime-sensei, and he seems worried about who we might be up against.'_ No sounds but the whispers of leaves could be heard as the two silently jumped from branch to branch. They were travelling towards the border Hinata noted. She looked over to Hajime. He was staring straight ahead, the veins around his eyes showing distinctly. His Byakugan was different from hers, and others. His eyes were a pale light blue instead of white, or gray. She had asked him about it once, but he only said that his father wasn't a Hyuuga. She had tried to get him to deliberate but he kept his mouth shut, claiming that she needed to focus on dodging his attacks rather than the colour of his eyes. She remembered that day vividly, her side and right arm still hurt. Hajime was a complete mystery to her sometimes. He got this look in his eyes whenever she lost a fight. But it was only there for a second, so Hinata ignored it, yet something about it frightened her.

Hajime stopped and Hinata followed suit, waiting for her orders. Hajime didn't even look at her while he explained the plan. "The target is ahead at the border around the waterfall and he's fighting a blonde haired kid in an orange jumpsuit." Hinata eyes widened, she had known that Naruto would more than likely be there but she had hoped that he might have been out on a mission when Sasuke left or something. Not taking any notice to his student's despair Hajime continued, "He's loosing so go and get him out of there and try not to fight the blonde kid his chakra is… different. If you're forced to fight him, be quick about it, Kakashi is on his way there. I'll try to delay him so you have enough time to complete the mission." He looked at Hinata. "Ready?" Hinata tensed and gave a small sharp nod. "Go!"

As soon as he had said "go" Hinata had sprinted off and activated her Byakugan. She found it strange, that after a year of her leaving Uchiha Sasuke- considered one of the strongest genin of their year- had ran away from the village as well. Much less that he wanted to go to Orochimaru. She knew that Sasuke wanted to get stronger to defeat Itachi; it was obvious, yet to willingly go to the snake for a sensei. Hinata couldn't imagine anyone going to him willingly, but then again, after the massacre Sasuke had become extremely cold. He just might be able to stand living there. Her thoughts drifted to who was fighting Sasuke; Naruto. What would she do when she got there? What would he say? Would he even say anything at all? Would he even care? Hinata shook her head. Of course he would care. It was Naruto… but a lot could happen over a year. It took less than a year to make her want to leave Konoha. Heck, it only took a few minutes for her to end up broken and battered- overall a pathetic sight on the forest floor miles away.

She was getting closer, she could see them clearly now. Though what she saw was slightly disturbing; a chakra covered Naruto- the chakra being red and in the form of a fox- and a… she would guess that was the result of Sasuke's curse seal. Hinata tensed ready to intercept the battle and complete the mission.

OOO

Hajime wondered how he would deal with Kakashi. He had no doubt- despite what he had told Hinata- that he could defeat him without too much of a workout, but he simply didn't have the time. There was someone he had to talk to. Coming to a decision he made the hand sign for the Kage bunshin no jutsu. Five perfect clones of him appeared; three to his right and the other two to his left. He nodded to them and they all switched directions and ran east, away from him. Those clones should be able to delay Kakashi long enough for Hinata to retreat with Sasuke. That part taken control of, he had another mission, adding chakra to his legs, he ran even faster through the trees becoming only a blur because of the speed he was travelling at.

OOO

At this current moment in time, Sasuke hated Naruto and Naruto hated Sasuke. Sasuke hated Naruto because Itachi had chosen to go after him instead and had humiliated him making him seem like nothing after all the training he subjected himself to. And Naruto hated Sasuke because in his point of view the bastard had everything he didn't, including the heart of Sakura, the girl he loved, and the admiration, praise and support of the entire village and he was going to throw it all away to go train with Orochimaru. Orochimaru of all people!!!!!!

Sasuke braced himself as another of Naruto's chakra punches hit him square in the gut and sent him flying into the rock wall. That had to have broken a few ribs, he knew it, but if there was any pain he couldn't feel it. All he could feel was hatred for his brother and Naruto. Ever since the day his family was murdered he only had one goal in life, to avenge his fallen relatives and kill Itachi. He devoted all his time to getting stronger so that he would be able to cause him the pain that he put the entire Uchiha clan through, and Naruto _dared _to stop him, to try and keep him away from his goal, his purpose for living. But there was one thing Sasuke knew he needed in order to defeat Itachi and only Naruto could give that to him- in an odd way. At first Sasuke had wanted to believe that he didn't need the Mangekyu Sharingan to defeat Itachi. To kill his best friend to obtain the special ability would only aid in making him even more like Itachi, and in a way Sasuke had a feeling that Itachi had planned all of this out. That he was somehow like a puppet with Itachi holding the strings and guiding his every movement. He felt like his actions weren't his own. Everything just seemed to take a turn for the worst. With Itachi beating him so easily in the hallway of that hotel as the dobe and respected Sannin watched. It felt like Itachi was mocking not just him, but the entire Uchiha clan; like he was relaying some sort of hidden message that said _'So this is the best the Uchiha clan can up with… pathetic.'_

And that's what pushed Sasuke over the edge. _'Itachi…'_ Naruto waited for Sasuke's next attack his chakra tail swishing and his elongated sharp canines causing him to have a sort of permanent sneer. He was somewhat aware of the transformation Sasuke was going through, but his recognition and all logical thought to stop him before his transformation was complete was hazy and scrambled; like it was floating around in his head but he just couldn't grasp it and bring it to him. He had control in this form but he was a beast and as such every attack was based on instinct- survival and domination- a basic principle simple and easy to follow, yet effective. He focused on one goal at a time. His current goal, to beat Sasuke and drag him back to Konoha- in pieces if he had to. His ear twitched and he turned his head slightly, looking towards the forest.

Sasuke saw as Naruto was distracted and took advantage, spreading his claw-like wings and flying towards him while charging a black chidori. _'Itachi…I WILL kill you!!!' _All of his concentration was on the task of killing Naruto, and because of that even his sharingan failed to see the kunai that was sent towards him from the forest followed by Hinata. Naruto in his advanced state saw Hinata and the charging Sasuke. Remembering his promise to Sakura he extended his chakra arm and pushed Sasuke out of the way before using his tail to swipe at Hinata. Hinata's reflexes had gotten much faster over her year long training with Hajime and thanks to that she was able to jump over Naruto's tail and jump back away from it when Naruto tried to grab at her. Naruto started turning towards her menacingly, but Hinata held up her hands and said, "I-I'm not here to fight N-Naruto-kun." She winced inwardly as she heard her own stutter, but it was necessary. Naruto might be dense, but even he had to figure that something was up if Hinata came back and didn't stutter. At least, she thought he would. "I'm he-here t-to help you bring b-back Sas-Sasuke-san." Naruto continued glaring at her- at least it looked like a glare, she figured whatever expression he would have on his face would turn out looking like a glare regardless in his current state. Eventually he turned back around to face Sasuke who had landed on the shore when Naruto knocked him away. Sasuke chuckled as he wiped some dirt from the side his face, "Please, you think that you losers can stop me. One's a dobe and the other is a pathetic excuse for a ninja. I'll kill you _both_." Sasuke charged again and Naruto ran on all fours to meet him head on, extending his tail and pushing Hinata back and away from the battle as if telling her to stay out of it.

Hinata skid to a stop near the shore leaving splashes and ripples in the water. She frowned at the thought of having been pushed aside like a little girl. _'I'm not a weak little girl anymore… and I'll show you.'_ Hinata ran back towards the battle, which Sasuke was apparently winning since he appeared out of nowhere beside Naruto and gave him a sidekick that sent him skidding across the water with a few rolls before Naruto had steadied himself. Making handseals Hinata whispered, "Water Manipulation: Water Spirit," and melted into the water, nowhere to be seen.

OOO

Hajime finally reached the edge of the forest and entered into a giant meadow. He easily spotted a boy wearing a tacky green jumpsuit and a bowl-cut hairstyle with thick eyebrows and another boy with a gourd on his back and red hair fighting Kimimaro – one of Orochimaru's favourite pets. The green ninja looked to be in bad shape, and he had no doubt would have been dead if not for the red head whom he remembered was known as Gaara as the Desert. Where he remembered it from… word travels fast in the Shinobi country. Hajime could see that Kimimaro was getting weaker because of his lung cancer and the strain of fighting Gaara. (A/N: Excuse me if this isn't accurate. I don't remember how Gaara finished off Kimimaro and my internet not working properly so I can't check) A wave of sand was sent at Kimimaro, large enough so he couldn't dodge it, Hajime added as much chakra to his feet as he could and in an instant was next to Kimimaro just as the wave of sand came crashing down and had him pinned to the ground. He quickly made the seal to focus chakra and was saved from both of them being crushed by the sand thanks to a chakra bubble he created.

Hajime grimaced in pain and looked down only to see some of Kimimaro's rib bones piercing his abdomen. He looked back up at Kimimaro who had shocked look on his face. He chuckled, "Hey Kimimaro-_chan_. I told you we would get you to join us one way or another." He chuckled again only to grunt in pain when his laughing caused the bones to pierce deeper. Kimimaro noticed his grunt and saw where his ribs were, instead of retracting them he only dug them in deeper forcing himself closer to Hajime. Hajime let out a small whimper but silenced himself and grit his teeth in pain while trying to keep a straight face. "I-Is that the w-way you… thank…. me for…. saving y…" he let out another, but unnoticeable, whimper, "saving you, Kimi… Kimimaro?" Kimimaro frowned, but retracted his ribs and tried to move away from Hajime only to find that there wasn't much room in the bubble. "Why are you here Seiko-san?" Hajime forced a week smile. "To save you… again. Listen, forget about Orochimaru, he doesn't care about you. You owe him nothing. I need you to surrender to the leaf brats-" "What?!" "Listen. I need you to surrender to them. Their Hokage is the Tsunade, the Legendary Slug Sannin and the best medical ninja in the world. She can cure you. You can have your life back. Ask to join their ranks. Please." Kimimaro looked at him anger in his eyes. "You want me to _betray_ Orochimaru-sama!" It was a statement, not a question. Kimimaro started to get up but Hajime pushed him back down. "You've already repaid him for anything good he has done for you! You came out here ready to die for him, and now I'm offering your life back! We need you Kimimaro. I'm offering you the chance to get what Orochimaru could never get for you. Take it!!" Kimimaro was speechless, so he only nodded. Hajime was gasping for air now and Kimimaro was also finding it difficult to breath. There wasn't enough air left in the chakra bubble. Noticing this, Hajime activated his Byakugan and found the way up. Focusing his chakra into his palm which he had raised in the direction the surface was and holding an exhausted Kimimaro, Hajime let go all of the chakra stored in his palm the same time he allowed the bubble to collapse. The chakra forced its way through the sand letting in light and air, as well as a small enough hole for Hajime and Kimimaro to crawl through.

On the surface, Gaara was shocked that someone had survived his sand wave, his shock only lasted a moment though as Kimimaro climbed out of the small hole followed by someone who hadn't been there before. Gaara retracted his sand getting ready to use his sand coffin but Kimimaro raised his hand and said, "I surrender." The ninja beside him had disappeared.

OOO

Sasuke and Naruto were ready to end the fight. Their next attacks would finish everything. Sasuke had his black chidori ready and was charging at Naruto and likewise Naruto had his rasengan ready and a bloody red thanks to Kyuubi's chakra. What neither of them knew was that Hinata was also prepared to end the fight, but her own way. Before the two childhood rivals could complete their attacks the water from the waterfall shot out in a spiral with a water-like form of Hinata at the head of it. The spiral of water collided with Sasuke; the water figure of Hinata grabbing on to him and taking him down into the water below. Naruto could only use his rasengan - made to have finished off Sasuke – to tunnel through the fast rushing water before dispelling it and flipping over to land safely on the other side of the river. The shock from such an amazing attack caused him to loose his rage-filled hold on Kyuubi's chakra and turning him back to normal. He looked around frantically for any sign of his friend and seeing none, dove into the water in a frantic search to save him from drowning.

Deep under water Sasuke could feel a female's body holding him down. He thrashed around trying to make her let go but it was futile. It was dark and he couldn't see anything, but that didn't change the fact that his head was pounding from immense pressure and that his lungs were compressed in his chest feeling ready to burst if air was not received soon. The pounding in his head only increased as he gasped for the non-existent life giving oxygen and only managed to swallow water instead. Finally, Sasuke stopped moving and his body turned back to normal as his curse seal receded. Hinata, still in her water spirit form, noticed his lack of movement and slowly returned to the surface holding him so he didn't sink into the darkness below.

Naruto rose to the surface again for a quick breath before diving under water again, still searching for Sasuke. He could hardly see anything but he continued searching anyway. He ran out of air again and returned to the surface gasping and accidentally swallowing some water sending him into a coughing fit. When he finally stopped coughing up water he was about to dive in again before he noticed a female body made of water dragging an unmoving Sasuke unto the shore. He quickly swam over to them and ran towards them when he reached the shore. The girl, who he now noticed was Hinata, saw him coming and stretched out her hand at him. All of a sudden Naruto found he couldn't move his legs, he looked down at the and saw that they were encased in ice as well as the sand around them. He looked back up at Hinata to find that she had solidified and that she was thoroughly soaked from head to toe. "Hinata?!" She didn't look back at him. A man appeared beside her and nodded to her before taking up Sasuke and running into the forest away from the border. "NO WAIT!!!!!!" it was too late though, he was already gone.

Naruto looked back at Hinata as she stood and turned her back on him and walked towards the forest, following the ninja. Naruto didn't understand what was going on. Hinata had said she was going to help bring Sasuke back, what was she doing just walking away? "H-Hinata wait!" This time Hinata looked back at him. "Where are you going? Why didn't you stop that guy from taking Sasuke? What's going on?!" Hinata felt something inside her churn at how confused and lost he sounded. She forced it down and put on a passive mask. "I'm going to follow my sensei and complete the mission." Naruto was even more confused now. What did she mean by sensei? And what mission? She had just let Sasuke get taken away. Hinata saw his confusion, "Naruto-kun… I'm not on your side. I lied to you." "You…lied?" Hinata nodded, "Hai. I was given a mission to bring Sasuke to Orochimaru. The ninja who just took Sasuke away is my sensei. I'm your enemy… Naruto." Naruto was shocked, speechless actually. Hinata being his enemy just didn't seem to be able to form properly and take root in his mind. It just didn't fit. There was absolutely no way he could loose two of his friends at the same time. No way. "Hinata… you have to come back to Konoha with me." This of course didn't surprise Hinata, she knew he would try and get her to come back. "No." "But-" "I said no. I have to keep training, I have to get stronger." Naruto couldn't possibly see it, but Hinata was exhausted. The technique she had used was one of the jutsu that was used with the same technique that Hajime could never finish teaching her and had to ask for help with. And since she had not learned how to properly use that particular style of taijutsu she was never able to use the Water Spirit jutsu to its full capacity, and actually using it in such an incomplete stage had drained her chakra reserves.

"You've already gotten stronger. That attack you did was amazing. You can come back. Everyone back home misses you Hinata. I missed you." _That_ shocked Hinata, "You missed me?" she asked, it was barely noticeable but there was hope in her voice. "Yeah, of course I did. We were friends Hinata, we still are." Whatever hope Hinata had felt was crushed instantly with the word _"friends"_. That was all she was to him, a friend. That was when Hinata realized something. She would always be just a friend to Naruto. His heart was set on having Sakura, and it would always be. Why wouldn't it be? Sakura was better than her. She was a better ninja, she was smarter, prettier. Any guy would choose Sakura over her. But she would prove them all wrong. She'd get stronger than anyone ever thought possible, and then she'd show them. She'd show them all. And in doing that she would show Naruto too. With that thought, Hinata's eyes turned cold and hard and her fists clenched. "I'm _not_ your_ friend._ And I'm not coming back. I told you. I'm your _**enemy**_. Get it through your damn skull. I left the village and I'm not coming back. Tsunade might as well just brand me as a missing-nin." She took a step towards the forest before stopping and looking around again, her eyes were soft again, "And… I'm sorry… about Sasuke." Of course she wasn't apologizing for that, but he didn't need to know that. This was the second time she lied to Naruto, and she took note of that fact. She then left him there.

A few minutes later Kakashi showed up and freed Naruto, who immediately tried to go after them, but was stopped by Kakashi who had to knock him out to get him to stop struggling. Sasuke was gone, and Hinata was ready to go search for Hajime's friend so she could finish her training. When she came back, they would all pay. Every last one of them who saw her as weak and pathetic. They would _pay._

OOO

K: FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I would never finish that. And we have reached the final turning point in our story. I'm proud of myself. Though it sucks that the day I finally finish this chapter there's something wrong with my internet. So I have to call my ISP. This is gonna suck. Anyway….

Questions:

1) How did you like the chapter, is there anything I could improve on?

2) What's going on with Hajime? Why did Kimimaro call him Seiko and who do you think "we" is referring to?

3) You're not mad that I took so long right, but if you are I completely understand and beg your forgiveness.

4) Do you want me to make another story after this one to show what happens during Hinata's training?

5) Any suggestions on future incidents? I might not put it up but I _just _might.

_**WARNING: THE NEXT CHAPTER TAKES PLACE AFTER A FIVE YEAR TIME SKIP. YOU WERE WARNED!!!!!!!**_

Review please. It's much appreciated, and I'll try to answer whatever questions I can.

Later ;)


	6. 5 Years Later

Sorry about that. I got banned… again. (I'm really good at that) so… yeah. Ummm…. anyway, without further ado, or laziness… here it is, Chapter 6 of W3GB.

**Disclaimer:** Obviously Naruto doesn't belong to me. If it did, I wouldn't be writing a **fan fiction **now would I? Looking back at chapter one, I realized I said it wouldn't take long to update… damn that sucks.

**WARNING: There is a 5 year time leap. ****I repeat A FIVE YEAR TIME LEAP. ****Thank you. This will be an extremely short chapter. And it is slightly rushed. So sorry of it sucks. If I get enough people nagging me I'll re-write it.**

OOO

Naruto was in a state of panic, and with good reason. He was late. If there was one thing Naruto knew to never do, it was to keep Tsunade waiting, and he was late. He had managed get all of his clothes on while running through the village to the hokage tower. He reached the tower in record time and managed to zip up his jacket and yell a 'hey' to Shizune as he dashed pass her. He missed as the young jounin shook her head in amusement. Naruto turned sharply and ran up the long winding staircase as quickly as he could stumbling a little every now and then when his foot missed the next step by a centimetre. There was an elevator, but with how fast he was going taking the steps was faster. As he exited the staircase and dodged random people carrying loads of paper work someone yelled at him, "Hey! No running in the halls!!" Naruto just waved a hand without turning around and yelled back, "Sorry! I'm late!" He passed by Kimimaro who looked at him in surprise then shook his head and continued down. Naruto skidded to a stop a little past the door to the Hokage's office but quickly managed to correct himself and barged inside, bending over and panting for breath as the door closed behind him with a soft thud.

Between panting breaths Naruto managed to get a "Sorry… I'm late… Hokage-sama." He swallowed air then straightened up once he could breathe some what normally again only to be greeted by Sakura's fist and the hard concrete of the wall behind him. Naruto twitched slightly then slide down the wall landing in an unceremonious heap. "YOUR LATE NARUTO!!!!!" Sakura screamed while shaking her fist threatening at the poor near unconscious Naruto. The sound of laughter filled the room and Naruto looked up from his place on the ground to see a laughing Tsunade. Naruto pouted and crossed his arms stubbornly. Tsunade grinned, seeing the gesture, "You deserved it Naruto. Look, even Kakashi was here before you." Naruto head snapped instantly, "WHAT?!" He looked around and quickly spotted Kakashi in the far corner. Kakashi smiled at him and answered his depressed state with a "Don't worry Naruto; I was here before she called all of you."

Naruto looked around when Kakashi said "all of you" to see Neji, Kiba, Akamaru and Shino all in the room with them. Neji still had that ever present frown on his face, though he was shaking his head at Naruto. Kiba was grinning at the blonde and petting Akamaru who was now huge. And Shino… was Shino. Naruto stood and dusted off his pants looking at Tsunade and straightening when she cleared her throat. Everyone except Kakashi looked at Tsunade. Tsunade looked at the assembled ninja and had to force herself to keep a straight face and not smile. They had all grown into strong shinobi. "Well, now that everyone's here," at this, her eyes moved to Naruto, "and settled. I'll start your, debriefing." Before she could go on further Neji asked, "It's about Hinata isn't it?" Everyone in the room seemed to stiffen slightly and looked at Neji. Feeling his comrades' gazes on him Neji simply said, "I have a feeling." Everyone relaxed slightly and looked back at Tsunade questioningly. Tsunade closed her eyes and let out a long sigh, she then opened her eyes and looking at all of them with indifferent eyes she answered, "Yes, it is about Hinata. Sasuke as well." At hearing the name of her long time love, Sakura's eyes widened slightly with hope. Tsunade continued the debriefing as a hokage should, calm and with no emotions. "You're being split into teams of two-" Naruto interrupted her, "Alright then." His face was hard with determination shining brightly in his eyes. "I'm on the team that's going after Hinata." This surprised most of them, since they all thought he would want to go after Sasuke and fulfil his promise. Kiba immediately yelled, "No way!" The two glared at each other; simply put, sparks flew. "Why not dog breath?!!" "WHY?" Kiba's glare intensified almost ten fold and Naruto matched it evenly. "Because, YOU BAKA. You're the reason SHE LEFT!!!!" "WHICH IS WHY I HAVE TO GO GET HER!!!!!!"

Neither of them noticed the veins that were pulsing on the foreheads of Tsunade or Sakura. Everyone else in the room was exasperated. (A/N: I have no idea what that means, but it seems to fit.) "No WAY, am I gonna make you go after her!!!" "I don't care!!! I'm going anyways!!" "**BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!**" They both stooped yelling at each other immediately scared of further provoking the wrath of Tsunade. There was a slight pause as Tsunade rubbed her aching temples. When she was calm again she continued where she had left off. "As I was saying before I was _rudely interrupted_. I'm splitting you into two teams. Neji, Shino and Naruto will go after Hinata." "WHAT!" She ignored Kiba's yell. "Kiba, Sakura and Kakashi will go after Sasuke."

"We all know that Sasuke is with Orochimaru, but it took some time to find the base location and entrance. Kakashi has the map with the base's location. Orochimaru should be just about ready to take over Sasuke's body. He should be weak, so hopefully you won't have to worry about confronting him. Hinata, however, was much harder to find. She seemed to be travelling all over the shinobi world during these past five years. She finally settled down southwest of the Sound village." She took out a scroll and threw it to Neji who caught it with relative ease. "Inside that scroll is her exact location at the moment. We also know that she has been training with a man called Hyuuga Hajime." This time it was Shino who interrupted. "Hyuuga?" Tsunade nodded. "Yes, Hyuuga. He just goes by Hajime now though. He was thought to be dead after a large amount of his blood was found in the forest after a battle had taken place. It seems he survived." She paused and looked at Neji, "You knew Hajime if I'm correct?" All eyes were focused on Neji. He nodded. "Hai, Tsunade-sama. He is five years Hinata's senior. As well as her older brother." At this point everyone was shocked speechless. Kiba was the first one to find his voice. "Hinata… had an older brother?" Neji nodded the affirmative. "Yes. He was also considered a prodigy. But he ran away when Hinata was two years old. There was no way she would remember him. Hiashi-sama created a law in the Hyuuga household that no one was to speak of him, and he persuaded others outside the clan to do the same, saying that he never had a son."

"So…" this time it was Sakura who spoke up, "how strong is this guy?" Tsunade looked at her sharply and without flinching said, "Anbu level, by now, from what my spies have told me." "And you're only sending three chuunin?" asked Kakashi. "I have all the other capable jounin on missions and you are needed in case something goes wrong or you have to face Orochimaru. If it was possible I would have put Shikamaru with Neji's team but he and his team are on a reconnaissance mission near Cloud village." Naruto chuckled a little then put on a huge grin on his face. "Big deal. I'll rip this guy to shreds easy!" Most of the ninjas present couldn't but smile at that comment. Kakashi closed his book and looked at the two teams before asking, "Shall we get going?" They all nodded. He leaned of the wall and said, "Very well." He then looked at Tsunade and bowed, "Hokage-sama." Tsunade nodded to him. "Be careful, all of you." They all nodded and left. As soon as they were gone, Tsunade reached under her desk and pulled out a large bottle of her emergency sake. She needed a holiday. A really long holiday.

OOO

**(3 days later: forest outside of sound village)**

All six Konoha shinobi were high up in the trees, split into the two groups Tsunade had assigned them to. Kakashi put a kunai in the tree and looked at his subordinates. "Remember this spot. We'll meet up here in five hours. If anything goes wrong and you are forced to retreat leave a shuriken beside this kunai so that we'll know." They each nodded in understanding. Kiba looked at Naruto, "Hey, Naruto. Don't mess things up." Naruto just grinned. "Don't worry. I'll bring her back. Believe it!" With a "Go." From Kakashi the two teams split up; one heading straight into the village, the other along the village border and towards a lone mansion in the centre of the forest.

Neji quickly activated his Byakugan. "She's not at the house." As far as he could see the house was empty. A bug landed on Shino's shoulder. He had sent it out to search for Hinata while they were talking with Kakashi. "She's at a training ground about a mile away from here to the east." (A/N: I'm not keeping track of the directions in case you're wondering about it) Neji searched the direction Shino pointed out and nodded. "I found her, but she's with Hajime. We'll spy on their training to gauge their skills and then follow Hinata. Hopefully Hajime won't follow her." Naruto nodded. "All right then. Let's go."

OOO

K: OMG that sucked. Oh well. This isn't a favourite chapter of mine. I'm feeling a tad bit lazy today… I'm signing out. No questions for this chapter. But remember. If enough people nag about it being crappy I might rewrite the chapter. So nag me if you didn't like the laziness with which I wrote it.

Later;)


	7. Changes

Why does it seem like I keep opening up every chapter with an apology? Screw apologizing this time, I'll just say what happened. I got lazy, then Dean came, I didn't get light back until like a week afterwards, I was watching this movie online and light went off for like a second and every time I tried to watch it so I could see the ending something happens and stops the connection to the internet so I have to keep downloading it. But now I'm typing so, be happy. I actually researched clothes for this, SO YOU BETTER BE PRETTY DAMN HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought you guys might like to know that I changed up this chapter quite a bit from the original way it was written. So… just so you can see how long it took me to finish typing this, I'm starting this chapter on Sunday, August 26, 2007.

**Disclaimer: Is this really necessary… I mean, I already said it at the start of the story, didn't I? And you all know I don't own Naruto****, anyway.**

** OMG I am SOOOOO sorry. I honestly thought I had put this chapter up ages ago. I never knew it wasn't up. Seriously, I even started chapter 8!!!! Once again I am sooooooooo sorry. Please forgive.  
**

O O O

She had spent 4 and a half years travelling around the world with her new teacher, and she had changed a lot within those years, not just physically, but mentally as well. Hajime was pleased with all her changes, though he thought that there still might have been a little more room for improvements. Hinata was just happy to be back with Hajime. Sure her other teacher was a lot nicer- though sometimes she seemed a little bit insane, and an easier person to talk to than Hajime was, Hinata just trusted Hajime more. Hinata had liked all the ninjas she had met and trained a little with over her long journey, but she never fully trusted them. She was haunted by the feeling that if she gave anyone else her trust they would break it and hurt her, just like what had happened in Konoha. Hajime, she could trust, he would never abandon her, she knew that; he would never use her. That trust only strengthened when she came back and found the mansion he had gotten built for her. Really, the place was huge. If that was a good or bad thing, Hinata didn't know. For the first three days she had to use her Byakugan to get around before she finally had most of the place committed to memory.

As was said before, Hinata had grown. She never really got much taller, only gaining height by three or so inches, but she had grown a more curvatious (A/N: If it's not a word from now on it is. So says K!!!) figure and lost most of the baby fat from her cheeks. Sadly, at least to her, she still had that cute and innocent look, but that was fixed by a small smirk. Most of the time though, she kept a blank façade. She wore a white tank top which stopped at two inches above her navel with a light grey bolero jacket with long sleeves and grey denim pants that stopped mid-calf. She had also grown her hair out, it now reached her mid-back and she would usually keep it in a high ponytail.

As for the mental changes, Hinata had asked her sensei how to get rid of emotions…

_(flashback)_

_Hinata was exhausted; she had been fighting pretty much non-stop for two days.__ She and her sensei had been travelling for five months now. Her sensei had then suddenly come up with an idea of doing a survival exercise. She had left Hinata alone for a day to do whatever she wanted- be it train or relax, and as soon as twenty four hours were up, Hinata found herself constantly on the defense, dodging traps and blocking powerful taijutsu moves as well as the ever frequent ninjutsu and less frequent genjutsu. Hinata was just about ready to collapse. She could barely keep her eyes open much less focus on anything, her muscles were sore and her fingers were numb, she had her Byakugan turned off because she lacked enough chakra to sustain it and she had been reduced to stumbling along the forest floor. Her mind was a haze and it was taking a lot just to be aware of the most intimate of her surrounding. Her clothes were torn, burned and bloody, not to mention they were still a little damp from when she fell over that waterfall, what was it, 5 hours ago? six? a whole day? To add to her exhaustion she was starving, every time she had managed to settle down enough to at least try and find something to eat, her sensei had come out of nowhere and started to attack her and she would be on the run again. Even if she had scanned the entire area with her Byakugan to make sure she was alone and safe, her sensei would _magically_ appear just as she was about to satisfy her stomach. _

_Hinata stumbled forward, nearly loosing her balance and having to lean against a nearby tree for support. __She was panting heavily and her vision swam before her. If one were to look back in the direction which she came they would find a trail of blood, much larger quantities would be found at different spots from where she had stopped to catch her breath or withstand the pain of her injuries. She coughed and watched with mild disinterest at the blood that had come with it and further stained the tree. That had been happening for the past three hours or so, at first she had wondered if maybe now her sensei would stop this insane cat and mouse game she had started, but it seemed that would not happen. For a brief moment Hinata had wondered if she was going to die, but she'd be damned if she did. She didn't accept Hajime's offer just so she could die at the hardest part. If she died here… if she let herself die here, in the middle of training it would only prove her weakness. She would survive this. She would prove everyone back in Konoha wrong about her. The next time they see her, they'll regret every time they took it easy on her, every time they looked at her with pity or disgust in her eyes, every time they called her weak behind her back. _They would regret it!!!!!!!

_She took a deep breath before pushing herself away from the tree and continuing forward. She was going on pure adrenaline right now; fueled by her will and determination to change. Little did she know that her sensei was right behind her, trailing her since she had switched off her Byakugan. 'Sensei' that's the only name the woman had given Hinata, and it was the only name Hinata would ever get. She had been following her student for a while now, merely watching her struggle to keep going; she was impressed, she never thought anyone much less Hinata would last this long. But Hinata was done. She took out two shuriken from her leg holster and threw them at Hinata. They hit their mark and that was it. Hinata collapsed; her body just couldn't take anymore. She jumped down from her perch in a tree and walked towards her fallen student, checking her pulse and then gently picking her up. She was surprised to find that her student was still conscious but shrugged it off and headed in the direction of the nearest hospital. _

_Hinata could only watch with half closed eyes at the impassiveness of her sensei. She had wanted to see if she was disappointed in her, like everyone else had been. But now, she was reminded of all the people she had met who had been impassive and emotionless. All the people who were like that were strong. Emotions didn't hinder them. They hindered her though. They made her weak and vulnerable. She'd had them her whole life, displayed for everyone to see, and they were always used against her. They never helped with anything, only served to make things worse. She struggled to force her question out past her lips, but all that came out was a series of bloody coughs and squeaks which had only managed to let her sensei look at her with soft eyes. Hinata tried again. "S-sensei…h-how… c-can I…can I g-get…rid o-of my…e-em-otions…?" Sensei only looked at her and sighed. Hinata tried again. "H-how can I-" She was stopped with a look from the older woman. "Hinata…" she sighed again, "A person can't get rid of their emotions… only replace them with others." She stopped here as if to contemplate how to continue. "Some people… some of them, well, some of them replace all their other emotions with hatred, making it drive them forward, but its controlled. It only fuels them, like love would drive a person to protect, hatred drives them to kill. To do their job. Other people…others, some of them fake their emotions, bottle it all up inside and show something else, and only show their true emotions when they're alone… or alone with the people they trust. Some of those people don't do that… like your relatives, the Hyuuga's. That isn't good. Eventually it will find an outlet, most likely on an innocent person or in the heat of a battle… What I'm trying to say is, you shouldn't be asking me how to get rid of your emotions… you should be asking me how to mask them." Hinata tried to say something else but ended up in another coughing fit instead. When she was done she was too weak to answer, so instead she looked at her sensei with eyes that said "teach me" before falling unconscious._

_(end flashback)_

Hinata never fully understood what her sensei had meant by replacing her emotions with others, but that was alright, she didn't need to. She had gotten what she wanted though, over the course of the years she had managed to build an impassive and expressionless state of mind. It was as if nothing was important, and yet everything was worth looking into. People who had known her before would have no chance in recognizing her new personality and connecting it to her old one. Another thing that had changed was Hinata's feelings about her old home village. Somewhere along the course of her training she had grown to hate Konoha and everyone in it. Her hatred for it only seemed to have grown exponentially since it first started. She would still show them how strong she was, she would show them all, but it would be a slow and painful experience, for them. It seemed that Konoha was kind enough to send her some of their ninjas to practice on. She had noticed them when they were half a mile away and right now they were as close to her as they believed was safe, key word, _believed_. She frowned, no where near her could be considered safe. They all hid their chakra pretty well, except one who didn't seem to have much control and his/her chakra seemed to be unbalanced. She didn't know who they were since she had decided to keep her Byakugan off when she spotted them at first, but they didn't seem to want to attack her. They couldn't be an intelligence gathering unit because that one person obviously had no skill in stealth and most intelligence units traveled in groups of two and were mostly anbu. These three had high chakra levels but they were no anbu, her lip twitched upward in an almost eerie way, anbu would have been harder to detect and wouldn't be as afraid as these three seemed to be about taking her on when Hajime was around. Hinata grimaced as Hajime hit her with a particularly strong blow to her stomach; with those three watching she couldn't risk showing them how good she truly was. She knew Hajime had probably noticed them before she had but even when she tuned it down a bit he maintained his pace, lightning quick and unrelenting. Hinata jumped back to gain distance. Those three could wait; she needed to survive this spar with as few injuries as possible, which meant that she needed to focus on Hajime instead of them for awhile.

Among the trees Neji, Naruto and Shino watched Hinata and Hajime spar. Surprisingly- for Neji and Naruto, the time they were waiting passed rather quickly. The fight was rather interesting, more so since Hinata didn't have her Byakugan activated and was using a fighting style that wasn't known in Konoha; at least not known to them. But Neji was more surprised by the fact that whatever fighting style she was using had been incorporated (A/N: Does that meant what I want it to mean?) with the jyuuken. Neji was also somewhat relieved. He knew he shouldn't have expected much growth from his younger and weaker cousin, but he had not been able to shake the feeling that she might have become too strong for him during her travels. But looking at her now, she was good, but not THAT good. He should be able to take her down by himself, even though it might be more of a struggle than it was in the chuunin exams. Even if she did manage to get the upper hand on him, he had Naruto and Shino to back him up. It should be easy enough for them to subdue her and take her back to Konoha. He knew that this fight would be over, easy and in their favor… then why couldn't he shake this feeling of foreboding; like fate was frowning on him.

Naruto's thoughts weren't like Neji's in any way except that he knew he would bring Hinata back. He had to. Hinata was going down the same path Sasuke was and he wasn't going to let that happen to another of his friends. He also couldn't help but be proud of her as he watched her. She had grown stronger, just like she wanted. Now that she had become stronger maybe it would be easier to convince her to come back. Naruto couldn't help but smile at that. His smile was faltered by a deep, throaty, and most of all evil laugh in his head._'What do you want baka-fox.'_ Kyuubi never really spoke to him much these days, so the laugh surprised him. And the fact that Kyuubi was laughing angered him. He could feel Kyuubi smirking in his head. _**"It's nothing you need to worry about… at least, not yet"**_and he laughed again. Naruto was about to demand that he explain himself when he was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder; Neji's hand. He looked back and found that the spar had stopped and Hinata was heading in the direction of her house; on the path right beneath them. Naruto tensed fearing she might have found them, but she walked on, not even looking up as she continued.

Luckily for them, Hinata had opened the room window and they were able to jump through it and into the room. At least Naruto thought it was luck, Neji had a strange feeling that Hinata had left it open for them. The room must have been Hinata's bedroom. There was a Queen sized bed in the centre, a dresser opposite the bed, a small bedside table and the closet which was closer to the door. The room was also considerably large, even more so thanks to the lack of furniture. But what stood out most was that the room was predominantly white. The wall behind the bed was painted to resemble a forest during winter, and the only other things in the room with colour were the two blood red pillows on the bed and the door which had a crimson vine-like design.

Hinata was at the dresser, fondling one of the white roses in the clear vase, with her back turned to them. She made no motions to show that she had detected them, but that didn't stop the cold trickle of sweat from running down Neji's brow. Something was wrong. But how could it be? This was the perfect opportunity; she should be exhausted from the fight with Hajime and as far as he could see with his Byakugan there was no one around for 3 kilometers. Not to mention that they had Naruto, he didn't believe that Hinata could have gotten rid of her infatuation with him so quickly.

"You shouldn't be here, you know. It's called trespassing." The small yet clear voice of Hinata startled them some what. Naruto was the first to recover, stepping forward boldly and getting straight to the point, "We're here to take you back Hinata-chan." Hinata's hand froze, since when did Naruto call her "chan"? Her hand closed into a fist, did he think that just because he called her "Hinata-chan" she'd go back. She forced herself to remain impassive and turned to face them. "Then you're wasting your time." She then looked at the open window, "You should go." Neji stepped up beside Naruto, his gaze cold and calculating; judging, just like six years ago. "We're not leaving without you." Hinata met his cold gaze with one made of steel. She wondered what it would be like to see him look at her with fear, with a look of horror on his face. Her lip twitched and she broke off from his gaze. Neji smirked when she looked away. It seemed some things never really changed, she still couldn't look him in the eyes, little did he know that she had broken it off to keep herself from smiling.

Hinata slowly walked along the side of her bed away from them and removed her katana from beneath one of her red pillows. Hinata closed her eyes as she felt the familiar hilt in her hand and when her eyes opened again they were clouded and unfocused. Noticing the katana, Naruto quickly tried to persuade her to just come with them peacefully, Shino joined him surprisingly, "If you come back willingly, you might even get a light sentence for leaving the village. The new Hokage is very merciful." While he was talking he ordered his bugs to surround Hinata. They slowly and silently made their way out of the sleeves of his shirt, invisible to the naked eye, and started to head towards Hinata ready to start eating her chakra, but at that moment Hinata let out a strong wave of killer intent, making the bugs stop in their tracks and causing the three ninjas to freeze. Hinata- shy, quiet Hinata- could produce this much killer intent. Neji slipped a kunai out of his pouch and got into a defensive stance. He leaked out some of his own chakra to keep Hinata's at bay, causing Hinata to cock her head to the side in slight amusement. His eyes narrowed. "Do you think a little killer intent will stop me? I was always better than you, and I always will be. You're weak Hinata. Always were, always will be. Right now, you're chakra levels are so low, even Naruto alone would probably bring you down, much less all three of us."

Hinata smiled. Not her normal sweet, polite smile, but one that was cold and cruel with eyes to match. The expression was alien on Hinata's face, and it made Naruto shiver slightly. He had never even thought Hinata could look threatening, he had never even seen her angry. He had to stop himself from taking a subconscious step back. Hinata's eyes gleamed with sadistic pleasure as she looked at all of them even though her question was directed at Neji. "Do you… _really_ think so," Her eyes locked onto her cousin, "Neji?" Before any of them could move Hinata's chakra skyrocketed and she was gone, reappearing in front of Neji, close enough for their foreheads to touch with her katana through his stomach and out his back. Shino and Naruto acted immediately, though Shino was at a disadvantage since his bugs refused to go near her. Naruto pushed her away from Neji, causing her to stumble back and pull her katana with her, twisting it while it left Neji's body. Neji let out a scream of pain and fell to the floor. Somewhere during the entire thing, blood had gotten on Hinata's face and clothes and her smile had turned into a grin. Blood trickled from Neji's ears, unknown to Shino and Naruto-and felt by Neji- Hinata had also attacked Neji with sound waves. With her attack being a direct hit Neji had gotten the blunt of the attack. If it was possible her grin grew larger, Neji's brain would be mush.

On the ground Neji couldn't hear or feel anything. All he felt was pain and it felt as if his heart had squeezed its way into his skull, pounding away furiously. Neji wretched and everything he had eaten before the mission came out until he was only dry heaving. Neji's eyes were also paining him greatly. They burned and as his vision dimmed he wondered if they really were melting from his sockets. He felt himself being turned over onto his back and he could just barely make out Hinata's outline a few feet away. He couldn't see any of her features, but his blood stood out against her dull clothing. He let out one last shaky breath before his world turned black.

Kneeling beside Neji and watching as the life faded from his now pale blue eyes and as his chest stopped moving, Naruto couldn't do anything but stare at his dead body in shock and confusion. Hinata had just killed Neji. Not even Sasuke had killed one of their comrades, and here she had gone and killed Neji; her cousin, her family. His shock turned to rage when her voice once again reached his ears, soft and smooth, he would have said gentle if he didn't know what she was laughing at. Naruto slowly stood, his fists clenched and visibly shaking at his sides. Without warning he ran at Hinata, his hand raised to punch her in the face, "SHUT _UP_!!!!" He swung his fist at her, but it only hit air as she deftly dodged to the right and held her katana to his neck applying just enough pressure to draw blood. Naruto froze, he was still angry, but at least he had managed to make her stop laughing. Hinata's grin had dwindled down to a smirk, then to a straight line, though humor was still in her eyes. Naruto moved his head back, trying to get away from the blade, but as he moved Hinata only pressed harder against his neck, a silent warning that if he moved, he would find himself without a head.

Hinata's smile returned as a cold kunai was pressed against her own throat. She chuckled a bit as Shino's calm and collected voice drifted to her. "Don't move." Hinata turned her head slightly to get a better view of the bug user and was rewarded with the kunai being pressed closer to her neck- she didn't even flinch. "Of course, a bug clone." Her voice had a cheery tone to it, which surprised Naruto at how she could just randomly change moods. This one sounded much like the old Hinata, the only difference being that she spoke with confidence and without a stutter. Shino paid her remark no attention, though. "You would do well to let Uzumaki go, Hyuuga." Hinata responded with a chuckle, "Hyuuga? I'm sorry Shino, but the only Hyuuga in this room is dead," she cast a glance at Neji's body, "and in the process of staining my beautiful carpet. Dead or not, he's paying for this." Shino's kunai pressed harder, this time drawing blood. "Let. Him. Go." Hinata finally complied removing her katana from Naruto's neck. Naruto quickly jumped away from her as soon as it was gone. Before Shino could speak again Hinata asked, "Naruto…tell me, did you and Sakura ever go on a date, or is the bitch still pining over Sasuke?" Naruto mumbled something. "I'm sorry? I didn't quite hear that." Naruto's features darkened. "I said, don't you _ever_call Sakura-chan a bitch!" Hinata laughed once more at that. "So that's a no huh? You know, it might help if you tell her that Sasuke's being a good little cocksucker to that snake Orochimaru. Who would have EVER thought the little bitch was gay. Guess you just can't tell with this generation huh?" Hinata's head twisted sharply when Naruto punched her. She spat out some blood then turned back to look at her one-time crush. Shino's kunai was gone. She could have sworn she saw Naruto's eyes flash red. Wiping the blood from her lip her smirk returned full force. "Such a strong reaction. And here I thought training with a legendary sannin would have taught you to calm down." Naruto aimed another punch at her, but this time Hinata caught it she also caught his leg when he tried to kick her in the side. She spoke in a harsh whisper so that only Naruto could here her next words, "Leave Kyuubi-brat. Container or not, you're no match for me." She let go of his leg and arm and pushed him away while he was in a stupor. Shino appeared behind Naruto and helped to stop him from falling. In a louder voice Hinata said, "Leave, now. Return to Konoha and give your _merciful Hokage_ this message. The day I return to Konoha is the day of its downfall. Be on your guard."

Naruto made as if to say something but Shino stopped him. "We're leaving. The mission failed." Naruto nodded slowly and then followed Shino out the window, leaving Hinata in the room with Neji's body, bloody and calm as ever.

O O O

K: wow, that last stretch was done pretty quickly. This is actually chapter 7 and 8 fused together, with a lot of cuts from chapter 8. What cuts you ask? Well, for starters, Hinata wasn't so borderline insane. AND, there was this _little_ section in the earlier version where she kissed Naruto right before he left. I also seemed to deter even further from the original idea of her still loving Naruto though she was trying to bury it. I'm gonna have to fix that in the next chapter. Any way, my internet giving me problems, AGAIN, but I finally got this done. Only about two chapters left to go now, and the epilogue. Then I can focus on my other stories.

Questions (Which you're supposed to answer)

Do you think I should have left the part with her kissing Naruto in there?

How do you feel about me killing Neji?

Who else do you want to see Hinata kill?

Does it look like I'm taking this too far? (If it is too bad. Its my story)

Is there no one out there who is suspicious of Hajime?!!!! (Not that there's a need to be, but still!!)

Did you like the update? That's over 4000 words right there!

Are you reviewing? If the answer is no then click the damn lilac looking button at the bottom left hand corner of the screen XD!!!!

Are you wondering if I'm doing drugs? If the answer is yes then "No, no I am not doing drugs. They wont give me any cause I'm underage"

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!

Review I say!!!

Later;)


	8. She returns

I started writing this one on…October 28. I'm going to try and find the inspiration somewhere, or steal it if I have to. MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!**cough cough** Let it begin!!!!!

After this comes the end, which will hopefully be as I planned it; violent and bloody. Anything you don't understand will be revealed in the chapter after this one. Promise. **PLEASE TAKE NOTICE OF THE FACT THAT I TRIED REALLY HARD NOT TO SHOW MY HATRED OF SAKURA WHILE WRITING THIS CHAPTER. THANK YOU.**

Disclaimer: I disclaim NARUTOOOOO!!!!!!!! The point of that was to say I don't own it. :3

O O O

After Naruto and Shino left, Hinata had taken out a white handkerchief to wipe the blood off of her katana, and had somehow ended up staring into Neji's lifeless pale blue eyes. To be completely honest with herself, she was shocked at how easy it had been, with how calm she had been through all of it. Not once had she felt remorse or a sense of unease while she killed Neji and threatened Naruto's, her once-love, life. It had been so easy to slide her blade through Neji, so easy to say all those things. But this had been what she wanted. This was what she had agreed to train for; longed to be like all her life… or was it? No; she had dreamed of proving herself to them, but never like this. She used to dream of marrying Naruto, living a long loving life and bearing his children, and yet she was threatening to kill him. She had never thought that things would turn out like this. That she would grow up to become a killer. Then again, dreams hardly become what you want them to when faced with reality.

She wanted to blame it all on them; her current state, her coldness, her pain, her longing. It would make everything so much easier. But it was also her fault. She wanted to turn out this way. She had worked long and hard to be this way, but now that she was, did she truly wanted to be seen as such? As a murderer? Hinata frowned. The answer was yes. Yes, she did. She wanted to go down in history as the person who brought Konoha to its knees. This wasn't just for her. This was for everyone who ever had to live through their life in that village unwanted; everyone who never got the acknowledgement they needed and deserved; everyone who would ever have to live a life like hers. Itachi had already started the process of the village's demise by destroying the once great Uchiha clan, and Hinata was determined to finish it.

Hinata let out a soft sigh. Seeing Naruto again had done something to her. Being around him again, it had caused the old Hinata to be resurrected from deep inside her. The old Hinata was supposed to have died a long time ago, and yet, here was this feeling inside. This want to be saved by him. Saved from what she had become. The need for him to notice it. All of them feelings of Hyuuga Hinata. It was annoying. She felt like a schizophrenic, and it was tiring. She had to be constantly fighting it. Fighting the urge to just fall down and cry. Cry for everything that had happened in the past years; for leaving them (Konoha); for almost allowing herself to die- wishing for it; for killing her emotions; for hating them; for killing Neji; for… for… Hinata screamed in frustration and walked towards her dresser her shoulders tense and a thin layer of sweat starting to form on her brow. Her hand absently played with the white roses that were in the vase on her dresser, while her eyes glared at the reflection in the mirror.

What Hinata saw made her feel as if her heart were being constricted; it was beating hard, but there was no room for it to expand and contract; it hurt. What she saw was everything that she had worked so hard for, the very person she had toiled hard to become, shattering, and her old self re-emerging. She saw a pathetic little girl with a boyishly cut hairstyle, a too-large jacket, and drowning submitting eyes coming into her own reflection. She saw Hajime and sensei, Kabuto and Orochimaru, all of them fading away as images of the past became more prominent. She saw Hinata, signature blush and all, coming back. "_NO!!!_" The glass vase hit the mirror, both of them shattering on impact, water splashing everywhere as well as glass shards; some of which cut and stabbed at her unprotected face. It was only pure luck that none of them hit her eyes, but that had not registered in her mind as yet.

Through all of that, Hinata had only seen one thing in that mirror, and it was weakness. She had thought that all of her weaknesses were gone, but Naruto brought it back. Naruto was her weakness. She was still weak. She could have killed him right then and there; finished her threat, but she hadn't. She had only threatened them. She had let him live, and with him, Shino had lived. She could have killed him and sent their heads back to Konoha in a simple sealing scroll, but she had held back. _'How long will this go on for?'_ Yes, for how long? How many of her threats would be just that, a threat? How many incomplete promises would she have to go through? How many times will she feel pride as she grew stronger only to crumble back to pieces when it was all exposed again? And by none other but Naruto? She wouldn't go through it all again. She would prove herself. She would show him. She would show him how strong she was. Naruto would die if he had to. She would kill him; squeeze every last ounce of life out of body. No weaknesses.

Several cuts on her face were bleeding, but it wasn't bad. Hinata looked at the mess she had made with uncaring eyes and picked up a still intact rose, avoiding the thorns and twirling it between her fingers. She had grown quite attached to the colour white. It was pure, it was cleansed. That was what she had been doing, cleaning off her slate and starting anew. Perhaps she had not cleaned it well enough, because the past was still holding her back. Her eyes once again went to Neji's body. Maybe white wasn't her colour. She lightly threw the rose into the air. It travelled across the room and landed in the pool of blood that had soaked the carpet right next to Neji's open lifeless eyes. Yes, white was always Neji's colour. It went well with red. She would try the colour black next. Black was suitable. She wouldn't erase anything this time, she would colour it over with black. Yes, black was the next colour she would try. It would be the last colour she tried. Hinata suddenly felt dirty. She walked towards the door and opened it, pausing as if wanting to look back, but she knew what she would find and continued, closing the door softly behind her.

O O O

Naruto trudged slowly out of the hokage tower. Kakashi and the others had been there to report their mission, or rather, only Sakura had been there. The rest were in the hospital- intensive care. Their mission had been bad, almost more of a failure than his had been, but his was still worse considering they had one death to report. He and Shino had waited outside while Sakura finished up. She wasn't hurt much. Just a few scratches that she probably didn't have the energy to heal. If anything, she was hurt more on the inside than out, but she managed to give Naruto a weak smile when she walked by.

Naruto looked at Shino- a look that wasn't returned- and then pushed the door open. Inside, Tsunade's head snapped up instantly then lowered when she saw it was only them. "Is it possible for you two to come back tomorrow?" Naruto thought she sounded… pathetic, like a dog does when it's been kicked in the side after a severe beat down. It was discomforting to hear her speak like that. The hokage was supposed to be a symbol of strength in the village, and seeing her like this was almost eerie. Shino of course showed no reaction to her current state, even if it did affect him. Tsunade let out a tired sigh and looked up at them once again, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. That was when Naruto remembered that only two of them were there, Neji had been left behind_ 'We should have brought the body back with us.'_

"We have our mission report hokage-sama." Tsunade looked at Shino then back at Naruto who was still quiet. Something went horribly wrong on this mission. Taking the risk she asked, "Where's Neji?" The feeling she had been getting only worsened when Naruto tensed. Shino wasn't saying anything either. _'Shit…'_ "Abrume Shino," he straightened at his name, "your mission report?" Shino's head tilted downward slightly. "Mission failed. The Hyuuga has gotten much stronger, we were unprepared." He seemed to freeze up again. "Casualties?" Naruto was shaking now. Shino hesitated for a brief second before saying the exact opposite of what Tsunade wanted to hear. "Only one casualty; Hyuuga Neji. Status; deceased." Tsunade's mind went into overload. Nothing was going her way today, and now she had to tell Hiashi that the prodigy of the Hyuuga was killed by the "disgrace of the entire Hyuuga clan". _'Shit… shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…' _"Tell me everything that happened."

O O O

It was getting dark now. After speaking with Tsunade he and Shino had gone to the hospital to check up on their respective teammates. Kiba was in intensive care after being having a chidori cut through his midsection. It was only by pure luck that he had survived, as well as most of Sakura's medical expertise and chakra. He never got to see Kakashi, as he was still in surgery. The medics hadn't even begun to figure out all that was wrong with him. So far they knew that he was poisoned and had severe chakra depletion, there were also several open cuts that were bleeding profoundly, a couple of broke ribs and his arm had been bent at an odd angle. How they had gotten out of sound under those conditions was a mystery to him. But Naruto was sure they would live, they had to; he couldn't take anymore deaths.

Sakura had been sent home to get some rest, so he didn't see her at the hospital. He decided to check and see if she was alright- even though the nurses at the hospital had assured him that she was perfectly fine, just tired. Plus, he needed to talk to her. She would be able to tell him the full story on what happened with Sasuke, and he needed to tell her about his mission anyway.

As Naruto walked down the emptying streets he went over everything that he remembered about Hinata. When he had first met her, she had been, well… weird. But in a good way. She was really quiet and every time he had seen her she looked away from him and turned red in the face, not angry red, more like when you have a fever. Now he knew that she was actually blushing and that the reason for that was that she had this apparently huge crush on him. She was nice too, and he could remember from the few times they had spoken that it was easy to have a conversation with her, even though she was real quiet. She always listened to what people had to say, even if they were just telling random thoughts. It was also common knowledge that she wasn't exactly the strongest in her clan. In his books Hinata was pretty cool but to her clan, she was a disgrace.

And now, now she was a rogue nin and a murderer. Could he really call her murderer though? Ninjas kill people all the time. If he called her a murderer, what would that make all the other ninjas? But most ninjas had a reason to kill a person; she had no reason to kill Neji. Yeah he had been a total asshole in the chuunin exams and had pretty much just about killed her, but still; Hinata was better than that, better than _him_. Revenge didn't cut it. Killing Naruto himself would have made more sense than that; he was the one who had broken her heart. But thinking over that moment was it 5… 6 years ago? Thinking it all over, he didn't know any other way to let her know that he just hadn't felt the same way then. And that smile…

Without realising it Naruto stopped walking and just stood there staring at his feet. A sudden, strong gust of wind blew some of his hair into his eyes. That broke his train of thought. He shivered a little then adjusted his forehead protector so that it would keep his hair out of his face. He looked absently at the sky, surprised to find a mass of dark clouds floating across; it had been clear a short while ago. The wind had stopped blowing but it was still cold. He drew his jacket closer and continued walking; he hadn't reached far when something white drifted down in front of him. Naruto once again froze in his tracks and looked at the clouded sky, only to see more small white dots floating down. He held out his hand, still not believing it, but was forced to when a snowflake, soft and wet, landed on his open palm. It was snowing… in June?

O O O

Sakura closed the novel she had been trying to read and placed it on the bedside table right next to her digital clock, which showed a dull 11:43 p.m. in bland symbols. She had come home and found herself unable to sleep. After all that just happened the idea of seeking the solitude and comfort of sleep made her feel guilty. The mission had failed… no; it was a total disaster. They had made it to Orochimaru's hideout without incident; they even made it as far as Sasuke's room thanks to Kiba and Akamaru. After that… Sasuke alone was hard enough to handle, he had almost killed her. Then Orochimaru came. Kakashi-sensei didn't stand a chance, and with him gone Sasuke just thrashed Kiba around into unconsciousness. Worst of all, he didn't even bother to fight her. He called her pathetic and a waste of his time. She didn't even try and attack him. She couldn't bring herself to. Sasuke made a lot of wrong choices, but he was still Sasuke; _her_ Sasuke.

Right now, all Sakura wanted to do was cry. She had held it back then- she wouldn't allow herself to cry in front of him, to admit to her weakness- and she still didn't want to cry. She wouldn't prove him right. She had gotten stronger. She was sure to become a great medic nin, maybe even as great as Tsunade herself. She wasn't the same little girl she was during the chuunin exams who had gotten lucky enough to have Ino as her opponent instead of someone like Neji or Gaara. She still wasn't the best fighter, but she was better, one good punch and she would have them through walls. She really had improved. She could imagine that the one common goal of every shinobi was to get stronger. Naruto wanted to get stronger, Sasuke wanted to stronger, even Orochimaru still wasn't satisfied with his current strength levels. The only ninjas she knew who weren't struggling to get better were those who were nearing retirement. She wasn't much different from everyone else.

Sakura rubbed at her eyes tiredly. It wasn't fair that she could want to sleep so badly and yet not be able to find it in her to put her mind at rest. A shiver ran through her entire body when the temperature suddenly dropped. Her curtain flapped gently in the wind and Sakura went to her window and locked it. A cold hand touched her shoulder and Sakura turned around quickly aiming to backhand the intruder, but they had stepped back just in time and her hand met nothing but air. She was surprised to see Hinata a few feet away blushing and rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. Sakura relaxed and gave a small sad smile. "Hinata, you frightened me." Hinata blushed again but gave her own little smile and said, "Sorry about that."

The two just stared at each other after that little exchange. Hinata stood quietly while Sakura struggled for the right words to say. It was odd to see Hinata there, in her room, and Sakura couldn't help but notice the changes in the girl. She stood straighter, and she had lost some of the baby fat from her cheeks, though she still had that cute and innocent look. She had grown her hair out to be at her shoulders, and she wore a black shirt that was like the shirt Sakura used to wear in her genin days, only with an ice blue wave designed on the side instead of a circle in the centre, with black pants that were a bit too long for her and bunched slightly at her feet. The entire apparel made her seem extremely pale, even when she blushed, and made her dark blue hair appear almost black. She also had a katana strapped her back, which made Sakura wonder how well she handled it.

She also noticed that Hinata's eyes were different. They were still the same white pupil-less Hyuuga eyes, but Hinata's eyes used to be warm and inviting, and easy to read, but now, they were kind of clouded, as if Hinata wasn't really there. Sakura shook her head slightly to rid herself of that train of thought. She was glad that at least one of the two teams sent off had been successful in their mission. Her smiled widened with a more genuine emotion as she watched Hinata start to fidget, as if she were nervous or uncomfortable.

"So, Naruto, Shino and Neji got you back." It was said as more of a statement, but Hinata answered it like a question, "I guess so." Sakura furrowed her eyebrows at the odd answer, but dismissed it as Hinata having too many thoughts on her mind. After all she had been gone for six years. "A lot happened since you were gone. I guess its up to me to bring you up to speed on things," she laughed when she said that. Hinata smiled that shy smile of hers and loosened up a bit now that they were talking again. "That's all right Sakura; I'd like to find out for myself." Sakura's smile faded a little but she nodded, "Okay."

There was another long period of silence while Sakura tried to find something to say. Hinata looked around the room in slight disinterest. It was pink (A/N: I detest pink greatly). "So Hinata, why did you leave?" Hinata's eyes switched backed to her so fast, Sakura wondered if they had just snapped onto her. Hinata's smile widened a little, but this smile was different from the others. It was cold, and seemed as fake and fragile as a glass figurine. Hinata's eyes had suddenly become unclouded, and stared at her, sharp, and gleaming with a hidden enjoyment. Suddenly, Sakura thought that Hinata's clothes looked perfect for her. It was like a missing piece had been found and added to the puzzle to give the viewer the full effect of the picture it showed. Sakura unconsciously stepped back, her hands which had shifted to be behind her back met the cold wall, causing a shiver to go up her arms. All of a sudden, Sakura didn't want to know what had happened to the shy Hyuuga during those six years.

Hidden from Sakura, on the back of Hinata's kimono was a blue wolf. Its long pointed canines were fitted in a snarl and its ice blue eyes glared threateningly out at the world. But for a brief moment, it's eyes were narrowed with mock amusement, and it seemed to smile with the chilling pleasure of finding its prey.

O O O

_(A few hours before)_

Hinata's room door had the same crimson vine design on the outside that was on the inside; the only difference was that the door on the side that hid her room from the rest of the house was grey. That was the first thing that entered his mind whenever he was standing outside her room. Kabuto adjusted his glasses and then raised his hand and knocked twice. He waited and when no answer came, he knocked again. Still he was met with silence. Slowly, he turned the door handle and opened the door enough to just peak in. If he was caught coming into her room uninvited, Hinata would torture him before leaving him outside in the cold for a few days, probably hanging from a tree limb with his only hope for survival being his regeneration abilities, and then she'd do it all over again when he was found and rescued. "Hinata-chan?"

He did a quick scan of the room, but it looked empty as far as he could see, so he opened the door wider and stepped inside. His booted feet landed quietly on the white carpet. He often wondered why Hinata loved the colour so much. He often asked her the question, but she would only smile at him with hatred and change the subject. He supposed she found him annoying; he always came over uninvited and talked to her as if they were the best of friends. She hated that, it was obvious. But he found her hatred of him amusing. Besides, Orochimaru had requested that he keep an eye on her now that she was back.

Kabuto scanned the room again, more thoroughly, but the only thing that caught his interest was the shattered mirror and the glass fragments of what he guessed was the vase that was missing, scattered on the dresser and part of the carpet. He had missed something, no doubt. Or maybe she had just finally snapped. He was interested but he couldn't say that he actually cared.

His gaze landed on the open window through which a steady, cold breeze was blowing through, and then to the carpet. Hinata always complained about him wearing his boots on her carpet. Saying that he would track in mud or something. His gaze shifted to his thankfully clean boots, and he bent down to tie a lace that had come loose. He stopped short when he spotted a red stain on the carpet, partially hidden by Hinata's bed. Forgetting about his shoes, he walked towards it raising an eyebrow when more blood and a dead body came into view. He recognised the corpse. Hyuuga Neji, from the chuunin exams. He had fought Uzumaki Naruto in the first match of the third round and lost._'He probably came for Hinata with a team and ended up getting himself killed.'_ Neji was a good ninja, but from what Kabuto remembered of him, he was cocky and underestimated people. He adjusted his glasses, which had slipped down his nose a little, and turned to leave, only to find Hinata at the door, dressed in black, instead of the usual white and grey.

He smiled and nodded at her in greeting, but she only stared at him with narrowed eyes. "So you had a little trouble, ne Hinata-chan?" Hinata glared at him then closed her eyes and turned to leave the room. She paused then turned to look at him again, "I need an army."

Kabuto's smile widened, "Orochimaru-sama and his troops will be happy to oblige." Hinata nodded and walked out of the room and down the hall. When he was sure she had gone, Kabuto looked back down at Neji's body and knelt next to it, doing his best to avoid the blood. He picked up the white rose and examined the blood that clung to it, then placed it back down, reached over and closed Neji's eyes. Standing once again he walked towards the door and out of the room, locking the door as slowly and quietly as he had opened it. Orochimaru would be happy.

O O O

_(Current time)_

"I believe I have found the perfect ten genin the sound and stone have to offer, Hinata-chan." Hinata glared dispassionately at him. Kabuto merely smiled innocently and adjusted his glasses with a slight push from one finger. If there was one person Hinata hated as much as Konoha, it was Orochimaru and his little puppet, Kabuto. Orochimaru was a slimy snake, and Kabuto was a damn chameleon. The guy always acted like your best friend and the best thing that ever happened to you, but once you knew his true nature he was surprisingly easy to read. Every smile was a warning, every glint in his eye a threat, and every time he "adjusted" his glasses, he was sizing you up, and passing you off as beatable. Yes, she hated Kabuto. But he was great at giving info on certain things.

"Stone ninjas are here? How?" Kabuto smirked at her in that arrogant know-it-all way – she hated it when he smirked like that. "Why, they travelled here of course. How else would they have gotten here?" Hinata almost growled at him. "I know that, _obviously. _ What I mean is _how _they managed to get here so _quickly_ on such _short notice_." She mumbled _"asshole" _under her breath.

His smirk turned into a grin. "Oh, why didn't you say so? They have been here for months, Hinata-chan." He turned slightly away from her to look at the camp behind them, Hinata turned to look also, making sure that Kabuto was still in her field of vision. His grin lessoned slightly, as he gazed out at the camp. "Orochimaru-sama knew you would return to us. He knew that you would come back wanting to punish Konoha for what they did to you. He also knew that he was the only way you would see that want fulfilled." He turned back to her, "Come with me." Hinata followed behind him as he proceeded to walk through the camp. A few of the ninjas he passed by stopped what they were doing and gave a small respectful bow. Kabuto nodded back with an all-too friendly (fake) smile on his face. "You see, after the Great Ninja War the Stone's economy never recovered. They had wasted millions upon millions of their money on the war, all of it gone down the drain, the total number of lives lost were twice that of what villages like the Sand and Konoha lost. And because the stone suffered, the Lightning Country suffered.

"Most of the ninjas you see here are from the Stone. Most of them came to us as genin or chuunins, others were just normal civilians from surrounding villages who wanted to take part in the rebuilding of their country." "Rebuilding?" "Yes. Orochimaru-sama only wants to defeat Konoha, turn it to ash and watch it blow away in the wind; he cares nothing for the land it is on. So he came to an agreement with the Stone's leaders. They would help him on his quest and in return, not only would they have gotten their revenge on the Leaf, they would have its land as well. You see, we have many different groups helping us Hinata-chan. Once Konoha falls, The Fire country will fall with it. You know what that leaves?"

Hinata nodded, even though she knew he couldn't see it. "Of course. That leaves the land of the Fire Country up for grabs. It won't be that easy though."

Kabuto laughed, "Obviously. All the nations will be fighting for control of the area, even if only to get a small portion. It will be war all over again." He entered a large tent and Hinata followed him. "The Second Great Ninja War… has a nice ring to it don't you think?"

Hinata ignored him, instead choosing to look at the group of ninjas that had immediately stood at attention when they entered the tent. She activated her Byakugan and gave their chakra system and reserves a once over. Satisfied she turned off the blood limit and said, "They'll do." Kabuto smiled and most of the genin relaxed. He nodded to them and exited the tent, Hinata following behind and the group of genin behind her.

O O O

Kimimaro looked over the list of names one last time, and feeling satisfied with it he put the clipboard they were on down and leaned back a little in his chair. After being healed by Tsunade and telling them what he chose to of his old master's plans, Kimimaro had been set free. Well, almost free. He had anbu watching him for the next three years, long after the one year probation period. None of them trusted him. Good. He didn't want them to. If it was one thing Kimimaro despised doing, it was betraying people. He could live with having betrayed Orochimaru; he was a backstabber himself. But the people of Konoha, as he saw it, were trustworthy – most of the time.

He had gotten a job at the local hospital. Konoha rarely sent him on any important missions and so he had a lot of free time. He decided that he would at least learn something useful while he was here. So he became kind of an assistant nurse. He would do everything an ordinary nurse did, except come in contact with the patient. He didn't mind that though. Simply observing the operations taking place and listening to the terms the other doctors and nurses used as well as a few trips to the library and he was slowly but steadily learning more and more about the profession. Operating on an actual patient would be the hard part, as he had no experience in that field what-so-ever, but he would take everything one step at a time.

Someone walked up to his desk – he was currently acting the part of receptionist – and Kimimaro sat up in his chair, put a smile on his face and looked up at the person, only for his smile to drop immediately. The receptionist beside him saw the sudden frown and leaned over to whisper in his ear, "Is everything alright." Kimimaro whispered back a, "Yes," and smiled a more obviously fake smile up at the person. "May I help you, sir?"

Hajime smiled back at him, "Come now Kimimaro-chan. You can't possibly still hate me for what happened so very long ago." Hajime thought it a great thing that no one in Konoha remembered what he looked like. He didn't even have to use a henge to get around.

"Stop calling me chan, _Seiko_. What do you want?" Hajime smiled at him innocently. He knew Kimimaro hated it when he was called "chan", which is why he always did it. "I need to talk to you," his eyes shifted over to the receptionist beside him, "alone."

Kimimaro nodded and stood up. He looked at the girl. "I'll be right back, Sumiko-san."

O O O

"It's beautiful, isn't it Sakura?" Hinata was referring to the snow outside the window Sakura was frozen in front of. She slowly started to walk towards her and Sakura finally found it in her to move her legs. For every step Hinata took towards her, she took two steps to the side, until Hinata was directly in front of the window and Sakura was right next to her dresser. Hinata opened the window, letting snow drift in. "You know what looks better?" Sakura didn't answer; instead she took up her gloves from off the top of the dresser and started to put them on. "You're not even going to try and answer? But it's so easy." Hinata still hadn't turned around from the window.

By this time Sakura had her gloves on and was ready to fight if there was a need. Hinata finally turned to face her, a small smile on her face, similar to the one she used to have on in her genin days. On the floor a small patch of white snow had already formed. She stepped away from the window, allowing for even more snow fall in. It was hardly noticeable at first but gradually the patch of snow on Sakura's floor started to turn red. With each new snowflake another red dot appeared on the white snow until it was a mixture of red and white. Not believing what she was seeing, Sakura formed the seal (A/N: I don't remember the name of the seal so live with me.) and said, "Kai." Nothing happened. She did it one more time, adding more chakra with it, but nothing changed.

Hinata chuckled. Sakura felt sick. She clutched the edge of her dresser to try and keep herself steady. "You don't look so good Sakura." She looked up at Hinata weekly, then as if on cue puked up everything that she had eaten earlier. Weekly she fell to her knees, wandering what was wrong with her. "Poor Sakura. Maybe you should have a drink of water. You look so dehydrated." Sakura's head snapped behind her in surprise, behind her was another Hinata. She started to shiver uncontrollably. A cold sweat ran down her forehead and Sakura watched shocked as the small droplets floated away from her to join the silhouette of the Hinata behind her.

Not able to hold herself up anymore she collapsed to the floor and started to gasp desperately for breath. Her throat felt so dry. The Hinata by the window chuckled again. "You like? I'm controlling every ounce of water that you have in your body, and removing it to make this neat water clone. Nice little trick isn't it? Its usually done to force someone into giving them information, a kind of slow torture, but, we have all the information we need already. Don't we?" The replica nodded. "Oh well. Goodbye Sakura."

O O O

Naruto noticed that all the lights in Sakura's house were off apart from the one in Sakura's room. He guessed that her parents were asleep, and not wanting to wake them he went to the side of the house and started to use his chakra to walk up the side. He ignored the now red snowflakes that fell; figuring that whoever was causing it would soon be caught and stopped by the anbu. He finally reached Sakura's room window, which was thankfully open. He started to climb through but stopped short at seeing two Hinatas in the room and Sakura on the floor unmoving. The two Hinatas turned to look at him and smiled coldly. The one behind Sakura blew him a kiss and then melted into a puddle on the ground while the other one laughed and vanished in a puff of smoke.

O O O

In the forest Hinata stood at the edge of a large clearing, with five of the ten genin to each side of her. Each genin had their hand on the shoulder of the genin next to them, forming a link that led to Hinata through which they were feeding as much of their chakra as they could. Kabuto was behind them leaning on the nearest tree and watching intently everything that was taking place before him. Hinata's thumb was bleeding as she started to go through a series of complex seals, gathering together the chakra being passed to her. She ended the seals by pressing her thumb to the ground and whispering "Summoning jutsu" under her breath. When the cloud of smoke and dust cleared, Kabuto found himself looking up at a large grey wolf, standing tall on its hind legs with Hinata crouching on its head and the ten other genin clutching at its fur so as to not fall off.

The large wolf looked around to see the location he had been summoned to before falling heavily to its front legs, crushing a few trees and causing the ground of the surrounding area to shake. It bared its teeth showing off the row of sharp canines that could easily crush a human like an ant. _**"There better be slaughter about to happen. And it better be caused by me…"**_

O O O

Done. That last part was written with no emotion whatsoever. I'm tired. Even though its 10:43 a.m. I'm finally on holidays. Yay. One more chapter. One more chapter. **Does little happy dance.**

K: Sorry if Sakura's death is unfulfilling. My brain wasn't agreeing to work with me, and Saint's asleep. I also thought you should know that this is the most changed chapter so far out of this entire story. Most of the sections were never there and those that were there originally were changed so much that they can't even be put under the "Used to be from original story" category. Seriously. I'm not over-exaggerating. It's practically a brand new chapter that took the place of the original.

Anyway. Review as usual._**DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE THIS PAGE WITHOUT CLICKING THAT SUBMIT REVIEW BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_


	9. End Game

YO

YO!! 'Sup? Anyways… _**THE LAST CHAPTER**__**!!**_ Finally, right? I love you. All of you. Yes, even those of you who are reading this story and not reviewing as I have so humbly **cough cough** asked (Meanies). And so we go (I sound like Pendragon lol).

Oh right. Naruto is hereby not owned by me in any way shape or form. But we all praise the atrocity that is a loophole, and are grateful for the thing called fanfiction.

**IMPORTANT:**** I made a small change to this chapter that was keeping chapter 10 from being written smoothly. I took out the entire part with the blowing of the walls and the snakes. If you don't know what I'm talk about, re-read the chapter.**

O O O

"Captain!"

The anbu captain looked up from the document he was currently reading at the urgent, somewhat frightened shout of his subordinate. He quickly recognized the patterns on the mask which showed that the anbu that had interrupted him was part of a scouting troupe that patrolled the borders and surrounding forest of the village. The anbu, though obviously disturbed by something, stood at attention and awaited permission to speak as was procedure. "Identify yourself, your status and your report."

"Sir, anbu #00141, codename Blackbird. Part of squadron CI4 set to patrol the western gate and surrounding area. At 22:17:43 (A/N: That's the time in Hour: Minute: Second.) there was a disturbance approximately 1 mile from the western gate. Suspicion to believe it was a summoning, a wolf, large grey… evil." The captain raised an eyebrow at the added note. "Upon inspection of the area we came upon a large camp of gathered sound and stone shinobi, seemingly preparing to attack, tonight." The captain tensed at the info.

"Is there anything else of importance?"

"A Hyuuga was spotted among them sir. Presumed to be the A classed rogue nin Hyuuga Hinata. Yakushi Kabuto was also spotted among the group and we have reason to believe that Orochimaru might be there as well."

The captain stood up immediately, putting his mask on and preparing to report everything to the Hokage. "Return to your squadron. You are to return to the gate and keep watch. As soon as they start to advance report back to me for orders, I will be informing Lady Hokage about our current situation."

"Hai." The anbu vanished in a blur and the captain followed almost immediately after. The captain reappeared in the Hokage's office. Tsunade, thankfully, was awake and sober. She looked up at the captain and mentally groaned. Not caring for formalities she waved her hand as a signal that he could go ahead. "Our scouts have picked up on an enemy camp 1 mile from the village. A combination of sound and stone shinobi, prepared for battle. Hyuuga Hinata and Yakushi Kabuto have been identified among the group."

Tsunade froze. "What?" Sound AND Stone. There was no way that they could have gotten that close without having being detected much earlier. And Hinata was with them? "Who is in charge of patrolling that area?"

The captain was quiet for a moment mentally going through a list of the patrolling units he had assigned to specific areas. After a while he finally answered. "None of my squadrons patrol that far out in the perimeter except to the south. All other areas more than 1000 meters outside the village are patrolled by the root anbu, Hokage-sama." Tsunade quickly processed the information she was given. That could only mean that Danzo had betrayed them, or that either the Sound or the Stone had somehow infiltrated root and managed to give the appearance that all was normal in that area. But that should be impossible. She had no time to dwell on the idea however.

Tsunade stood, ignoring the important, yet increasingly irritating paperwork scattered across her desk. She immediately took on the strict, no-nonsense façade of a leader. "Send out the signal for all ninjas to gather before the monument. Then sound the inside alarms for the villagers to wake up and start heading towards the shelters. I want you to pull back all your anbu from their current posts and assign them to the different sectors in the village. AND I WANT IT DONE FIVE MINUTES AGO!"

"Hai Hokage-sama." The captain disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"SHIZUNE!" Tsunade's assistant slowly poked her head through the doorway. Tsunade sounded angry; not a good thing. "Get in here." Shizune opened the door fully and walked inside. Tsunade didn't wait for her assistant/apprentice to say anything, instead getting straight to the point. "We're about to be attacked by a joined force of Sound and Stone. I want you to pull back all the ninjas we have currently on missions; if we survive this attack we'll need all the ninjas we can spare to fight off any later attacks from any of our other enemies. I also want all medics with no fighting skills to join the rest of the normal citizens on the emergency evacuation routes towards the shelters and tell Danzo to get his fat ass to me before I have to go to him." Shizune stood looking dumbfounded for a second. She quickly snapped out of it though and started to turn to leave but she was stopped by Tsunade. "One more thing, Shizune. Send a message to the Sand. If and _when_ we survive this attack we'll need all the re-enforcements we can get. They're our only true allies currently, sad to say." Shizune nodded and hurried out of the office to carry out her tasks.

Tsunade took up her Hokage hat – she hated the thing – and put it on. "Let's hope we really _do _survive this."

O O O

The large wolf shook himself violently causing all of the genin to lose their grip and fall. _**"Who dared to summon me?"**_ His voice flowed with a strange ferocity that caused the ground to flow with it, like the waves of the sea.

Hinata stood and in a clear voice proclaimed, "I did Hisoka-san."

The wolf, Hisoka, blinked once at the familiar voice, and then narrowed its eyes. _**"Hinata-chan… You know I hate it when you stand on my head."**_Hinata merely smiled that frighteningly cold smile of hers and jumped off Hisoka's head using the nearby trees that Hisoka hadn't already crushed to slow her decent to the ground. When she landed Hisoka smiled, though it looked more like a snarl. Hinata was the one summoner he had ever liked in his many years of living. She was strong, she never let emotions control her much unlike the rest of the humans, and she always summoned him to a worthy occasion, full of humans that he could snap like tender twigs between his sharp, pearly white teeth. _**"What delicacy might you have prepared for me this time Hinata-chan?"**_

Hinata looked up at the large imposing figure of Hisoka, unperturbed by the way he ran his tongue over his canines. "You'll really like this one Hisoka-san. I've summoned you to help me start a war."

"_**A war, you say?"**_ Hisoka grinned. _**"Now why would someone like you care to start a war?"**_ He chuckled sinisterly, causing a shiver to run up and down the spines of the 7 genin that had managed to survive the fall from the wolf.

Hinata remained composed, though that small smile of hers still adorned her face. A smile many in Konoha would grow to hate in their last few moments of living. "I care nothing for the war." Hisoka raised an eyebrow curiously. "I merely care for the start of it."

"_**And what, my dear, will start this war of yours?"**_

Hinata let out a small laugh. "Why, the destruction of Konoha of course."

"_**Konoha, really now?"**_ Hinata merely nodded and if possible, Hisoka's grin merely widened. He had no personal qualms with the village, but he had heard a lot about Konoha, about how a ninja from the highly prosperous village had managed to seal the great Kyuubi. If the village holds true to its reputation, many powerful ninjas would rest behind its walls, and the most delicious of mortals were always the ones who held power. The reason he hadn't eaten Hinata as of yet was because she always delighted him with some of the most powerful shinobi. _**"I care nothing for what you humans do with your world…"**_ He watched Hinata closely to see if she would react in any way to his partial answer, she didn't, _**"but… I could never pass up a good meal. It has been too long."**_

In the shadows of the trees Kabuto observed and listened to everything the two were discussing. He had led them away from the camp, to the border of the leaf that was the least guarded, the area behind the hill on which the hokage faces were carved. The hill was large enough to conceal the large wolf from the sleeping village and with all of the leaf's attention focused on the camp out front, they would gain the advantage of surprise. But there was one other thing… "Hinata chan." Both Hinata and Hisoka glared in his direction. He forced himself to remain still; Hinata he could handle, Hisoka however… that was one too many. "As much as Hisoka-sama would be of great assistance to us, we will need more than just one wolf – however powerful – to scatter the Leaf's defences." He forced a smile to his lips.

Hinata continued to glare at him. _'Arrogant son-of-a-bitch.' _She blinked then turned to face Hisoka. "As much as I hate to admit it, he is right Hisoka-san. I am afraid you will have to share this time. The leaf will most likely have their strongest shinobi focused on attacking and occupying you. I need to spare my chakra for the upcoming battle, and it is my request that you summon some of your… children, to our aid."

Hisoka studied Hinata's facial expression carefully. He hated sharing.

O O O

Naruto was fighting a raging battle inside him. Two; two of his precious people had been killed by Hinata. He had run away the first time, and because of it, Sakura had suffered; Sakura had _**died**_. Was one person worth the lives of two? _'No…'_ How many more would she kill? How many more of his precious people would die by her hands? How many innocents killed in this… quest of hers? If she was capable of taking the lives of people who she used to call _friends_ what's to say she wouldn't have trouble killing some random person on the street? Not even Sasuke had gone this far… Hinata… she had gone too far.

Slowly, the truth began to come together in Naruto's mind. It didn't matter that she used to be a friend, it didn't matter that she used to be so shy, and innocent, and fragile… What mattered was that she was no longer a ninja, no longer worthy of being called a shinobi. _'A ninja that leaves behind his comrades is worse than trash.' _That was one of the first things he had learnt when he became a genin. Hinata was a traitor, a murderer, a person of the worst kinds… she had become a monster, a monster that needed to be stopped. He would not allow for another Itachi to be made.

Naruto gently set Sakura down on her bed and closed her eyes. Her skin was cracked and shrivelled, her eyes sunken into their sockets, her hair no longer shiny and luscious, but rather limp and crispy. She was literally skin and bones. Naruto couldn't bear to look at her like this, so he draped the covers of her bed over her lifeless… _evaporated_, body. His eyes were cold, a slight tint of red showing behind the blue hues; Hinata would pay.

Outside, a blue light blinked three times.

O O O

Hisoka landed surprisingly lightly in front of the large waterfall. (A/N: It's the waterfall from the episodes with Naruto's element training, if you're wandering.) Hinata, who had been hidden by his fur jumped down from his neck where she had been seated comfortably for the short journey, using her chakra to soften the landing and keep her from breaking both of her legs. She nodded at Hisoka who sent a blood-crazed grin in no particular direction and jumped off, heading back to Konoha, leaving Hinata alone. Hinata watched as the massive wolf disappeared from her view with leaps and bounds then turned to race the waterfall. It really was one of the greatest waterfalls in the whole of the shinobi world. Hinata sighed and walked towards it, disappearing under the large volume of water pouring down from above.

O O O

Tsunade couldn't believe it. The battle had suddenly started just as all of her ninjas had assembled at the monument. A pack… no, an _army_ of summoning wolves of different sizes and specialities had just seemed to rain down on her and all of the gathered ninja from the monument. Many of her ninja had simply been squashed beneath the larger wolves when they landed. But these summons were smart; they had immediately surrounded them, making them have to be packed together like a can of sardines. Her ninja count was diminishing rapidly, and even though the more experienced ninja were mostly able to get out of the tight circle, there were enough summons outside of the circle to keep them more than occupied.

The battle had only started and yet already the amount of blood in the air was enough to make her phobia reappear slightly. She looked at her trembling hand then grabbed a kunai from her pouch just in time to stab it into the neck of a wolf that was aiming to rip her head off. The wolf spewed blood from its neck unto her hair and face before vanishing in a puff of smoke. She then turned around to find a wolf, roughly about 13 feet tall heading towards her and the slug boss summon she had been standing on. "Shit." The wolf was too close to get her slug to dodge or counter attack. Cursing her luck once again she jumped off, un-summoning the slug to save it from becoming a meal. The wolf ended up jumping over her head, ignoring her for a 17 foot tall dear, that she would have to guess was summoned by someone from the Nara-clan.

She was about to help out the nearest group of jounin when an explosion close to the western wall caused the ground to shake. The explosion could only mean one thing Tsunade thought, and when the shaking stopped, she immediately ran towards a nearby group of anbu who were dealing with three 25 feet tall wolves. The anbu upon seeing their leader jumped away from the wolves. The wolves had no chance to react as the ground beneath their feet trembled and spikes of earth pierced their bodies. The wolves puffed away and the anbu came to stand before their leader, ready to protect her from any attacks. "No!" she shouted at them. They looked back at her inquiringly. "Head to the west wall. Gather as many ninja that you can on your way there and try to hold off the advancing forces. The last thing we need is for that army to join with these damn wolves!" They nodded and jumped off, running quickly towards the wall as ordered.

Tsunade returned her attention to the group of jounin she had seen earlier only to find that they had defeated their adversary and split up to assist others. As she looked around she noticed that while the wolves were smarter than normal and large in number they didn't seem to have that much chakra. Some of the smaller wolves even puffed away without receiving a fatal injury, which meant that they weren't getting enough chakra to sustain themselves for long. Konoha had a chance.

O O O

Unknown to Tsunade, she was missing one particular group of ninjas. The Hyuugas had been attacked by a group of 16 ninja, all of them at least jounin with sound headbands. Twelve of the ninja had taken care of the guards while the rest of the household was asleep, and managed to keep those that awoke later on away from the other four when the alarm had been raised. The four ninjas not fighting had set to work on putting up a shield, around the manor, much like the one that had been used when Orochimaru was fighting the Sandaime. The explosion felt earlier was not of the west wall being blown through but of the ninjas inside the shield blowing themselves up with exploding tags that had also been placed on some of the buildings as well as their own person. Most, if not all of the Hyuugas, were now either dead, or incapacitated.

O O O

Hinata entered the small cavern behind the waterfall thoroughly soaked. She could feel as the wolves she had gotten Hisoka to summon vanished one by one. Hisoka had managed to find himself right in the middle of the anbu headquarters. He wasn't dead yet, but he would soon be at this rate. Even though Hisoka had summoned the other wolves, they still had to have a portion of Hinata's chakra in them to keep them in this world long enough to weaken Konoha. That had taken a taxing effect on her chakra reserves, and she was practically on empty. But for what she was about to do she needed to be on full.

She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out two soldier pills. She rarely ever used them, as they made her feel like she had just taken some type of drug; her moves though strong were slightly more sluggish; not enough to affect her fighting, but she still didn't like it. Ignoring her dislike for the moment, she popped both the pills into her mouth and swallowed them, almost instantly feeling her chakra returning. When she was satisfied with her level of chakra, she exited the small cavern to stand on the water directly below the water that was hammering down. She quickly went through a long set of hand seals before seeming to fuse with the water, disappearing from view to the normal eyes. The water in that area bubbled and foamed, but that of course was camouflaged within the massive sprays of water created by the falling water pounding away at the water already at the bottom.

O O O

Naruto had seen the silent alarm from Sakura's room – he shivered remembering how dry she looked, like dust that was only wet enough to stay together but would collapse at the slightest touch. He had immediately ran towards the monument, arriving a little later than the other shinobi – late enough to excluded from the ring of wolves. He had summoned a few toads to fight off the small wolves that kept leaping at him (one of them almost bit him in the crotch) but it seemed that there weren't really needed as the little wolves were poofing away on their own. He had seen a few of the sound advance troops running through the village and had given chase, not knowing what they were up to but knowing enough to figure out that it was no good for Konoha.

He was intercepted by a group of anbu who stopped right in front of him. "What the hell?! They're getting away!"

The anbu paid no attention to the rapidly disappearing Sound ninjas. Naruto growled and was about to tell them to piss off when one of them addressed him. "Fo-… Uzumaki, come with us." He managed to catch himself. "Hokage's orders." At hearing that Tsunade had ordered it, Naruto shut up and nodded, following the anbu as they headed for the village wall.

Naruto mumbled an 'oh shit' under his breath as he saw the entire sounds army lined up behind the wall, and the somewhat smaller army of stone ninjas off to the side. He looked at the anbu who had spoken to him earlier, stopping when he stopped, his gaze flicking nervously from the small group he was with to the large army behind the wall. "What do we do?" he asked.

The anbu didn't respond until a few long, antagonizing seconds had gone by. Instead another anbu, one with an owl mask spoke up. "They aren't moving towards the wall. They're just standing there." Naruto looked and indeed, the army was making no move to get through to Konoha, in fact, the ninjas on the front line were backing _away_ from it. The anbu went into a conversation of silence, moving their hand in what Naruto took to be senseless gestures that made him feel like he was being left out. He went back to looking at the wall and the army. They were just… standing there, as if they were waiting on something. The anbu beside them stopped their signing to observe the situation. He silently hoped that they had a better understanding of what was going on than he did.

He would have hated to know that for once someone was just as stumped about something as he was.

That's when Naruto heard it. A slow… churning sound. Like water being stirred around in a small area so that it was splashing at the edges of its container. It was a strange sort of hum. The reason for it was soon made clear. Twirling around and around and heading towards them, like a larger version of a certain jutsu he had seen performed by a once-shy acquaintance of his… a much larger version. Only this time, he couldn't see any water-like figure leading it all.

O O O

Tsunade turned just in time to see a line of bloody pointed teeth and smell the rank breath of a summon wolf as it prepared to bite her head off. A draft of hot air hit her as it all vanished in a poof of white smoke. Tsunade blinked, shocked at the sudden disappearance of the wolf. She looked around to find out who was responsible for saving her life only to find that she could barely see six feet in front of her. The area where the fight between ninja and wolf had been occurring was covered in smoke from the wolves being de-summoned. Tentatively a slow chorus of cheers started up and then turned into outright celebration as what ninja had survived revelled in the sudden but well-welcomed victory. Tsunade couldn't see the ninja, but the noise that welled up was enough to convince her that many shinobi had survived the short attack.

Unlike the others though, Tsunade kept quiet, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, her senses pushed to their limit and then some with the aid of what chakra she could afford to spare. The amount of smoke blanketing the area would make it easy for the _real_ army to attack. But only she and a few other anbu knew about that, they had been attacked before she could inform the rest of the shinobi of what was happening. She waited tensely as the smoke started to lift from the area. A few jounin who were nearby spotted her and immediately formed a protective circle, suspicious as well as the sudden ending of the battle, putting the protection of the hokage as top priority on their list, for the moment.

The cheers lasted for another five minutes before they as well as the smoke finally dwindled down to a dull murmur of disbelief and a few annoying wisps of white. It was only then that Tsunade heard the small drill like sound that was entwined with the music of running water. Her head as well as the heads of the other ninja turned upwards to see as a large column of water, spinning quickly in a horizontal cylindrical shape, bore down on their heads. At first it was simply a heavy downpour, and then the entire column collapsed on them, crushing and drowning most, with the ferocity of all of the greatest waterfalls. The water continued to pummel a crater into the village as it spread out like a huge wave, devouring buildings drowning out the cowering citizens in the escape passages that had been left so foolishly opened, and finally crashing against the walls of the village.

The combined army looked on in awe. Broken out of their trance only by Orochimaru's grated triumphant voice yelling their orders. "_Go! Kill any and all survivors! __**Stop staring and attack! THE FALL OF KONOHA IS AT HAND!!"**_

They gave out a triumphant, fierce battle cry and jumped the wall, adding chakra to their feet to keep from sinking in the large pool that Konoha had become.

Naruto and the anbu he was with stood on the still visible roof of a three story inn, soaking wet and watching as a torrent of shinobi leaped from behind the wall to land on the water. Naruto looked inquiringly at the anbu who suddenly increased to the number of 50, and got his answer. He formed the familiar cross seal and shouted out "**Kage bunshin no Jutsu**!" reaching deep inside him for the foxes chakra. When the cloud finally disappeared roughly a thousand Naruto clones were on the surface of the water. All giving a battle cry before charging at the army already settled on the water. The anbu and their clones attacked the vulnerable shinobi still in flight from over the walls. They stood shoulder to shoulder in a straight line using all manner of Ninjutsu to do as their Hokage had ordered. The boy was useful after all. If he could keep most of the enemy distracted they could pick the others off as they jumped the wall. Of course they didn't believe that they could defeat the entire army much less survive this attack. But they had been ordered hold off the army for as long as possible, and they'd be damned and burned in hell if they couldn't buy their ninjas some time to recuperate.

O O O

Once again hidden by the large mountain, Hisoka sat on his haunches and listened gleefully and hungrily to the sounds of the ongoing battle. A bloody grin was on his face, his lips pulled back to reveal shreds of clothing, limbs and other body parts stuck between his massive teeth. Now all he had to do was to wait until the battle was done, then he would strike, and he would feast. The anbu weren't nearly enough to fill him, or beat him for that matter. In terms of strength he should be considered to rank among the tailed beasts themselves. He reflected again on why he had yet to eat his latest summoner. She always provided a good meal. _**Always.**_

O O O

**K**: Yes, yes I know you are all very pissed at me right now. I'm pissed at myself. I really HAD planned for this to be the final chapter. Turns out that it was just too much to hope for. Be happy, you get an extra chapter out of me. But after writing all of this I am seriously tired; exhausted actually. Although I love fights, I have a hard time writing them, and I've tried really hard to make this chapter seem more able to happen. It's tiring business that I'm still not done with all of it. There's still so much more to do. Agh!

The next chapter will most definitely be the final chapter though. It's just this fight scene that's left. Then it should be all cool until I reach the epilogue which will have a much lighter mood to it.

Review my oh, so forgiving readers, review and give me the inspiration needed to finish this story once and for all. And hope that Naruto doesn't make the next chapter as hard to write as he made this one. Or else it will take forever to come out.

Ja ne ;)


	10. Dead End

Okay, this time, I'm making sure that this is the last chapter. If I fail in that then I'll flame myself. By the way, I noticed that last chapter I said that it would be smooth sailing until the prologue. Heh. Sorry. I meant **epilogue**. Word confusion. But so as to not waste any more time…

**Disclaimer: Yadda yadda… no Naruto… yadda yadda yadda I don't own. There.**

**IMPORTANT: ****I MADE A SMALL YET KIND OF IMPORTANT CHANGE IN CHAPTER NINE. I took out the part where the wall was blown open and the snakes were put in, because I realized that it was an unnecessary element and it complicated things, not to mention it was just plain stupid. Look back on chapter nine to refresh your memory, other than that, go ahead and read chapter 10. THANK YOU.**

OOO

When Tsunade's head finally broke the surface of the water the first thing she did was gasp and sputter at the water in her lungs before she sank back down into the cold, _heavy_ darkness. The actual pressure of the water falling on top of them would have been enough to kill her if she hadn't released all the stored chakra in the seal on her forehead; and after doing that the actual weight of the water had ceased all comprehensive thought in her that her mind had been able to gather. She broke the surface of the water again, and this time, an arm wrapped around her torso before pulling her onto something solid. _'Roof…'_ And it _was_ a roof, she could feel the rough cracked tiles through her soaked clothes.

"Hokage-sama, are you alright?"

Tsunade attempted a glare at her rescuer, did she _look_ alright, but another set of coughs ruined it, so she just nodded meekly. Briefly, the thought passed through her head that when she woke up this morning she had never thought that the day would turn out to be this… wrong. But it was a fleeting thought. One drowned out by the millions of other thoughts running rampant in her head. Pushing herself so that she was sitting up Tsunade voiced one of them, "What kind of attack was that?"

"I… don't know." Tsunade looked at him, not having expected an answer. "But, it used up a lot of chakra, an insane amount of chakra actually. Something like that shouldn't have been possible."

She shook her head in agreement. "Right, not just the amount of chakra, but the control needed to guide it all in the right direction while keeping the water together. More than one person shouldn't have been able to gain that much control without having practiced for years, and a movement of that much water, no matter where it was, should have brought the attention of at least one of the ninja villages." Whoever this ninja was, she was glad to have him here to help her sort through all the rampant thoughts in her head. But it still didn't answer any questions. How was the sound _doing _this.

Tsunade pushed herself to her feet, brushing away the ninja's arm when he offered his support. Looking across the water she took note of how many ninja's had survived. It wasn't good. One or two anbu, maybe fifteen jounin, twenty chuunins, some of them just floating on top of the water, most likely unable to move… and the genin, only one as far as she could see, and he was screaming bloody murder. As she continued to stare at the unfortunate genin, his arms were crushed from what she could see, he vanished. Tsunade did a double take. One minute he was there the next… There was another short scream, this one a jounin that was closer to the genin than the others. Tsunade watched as he was dragged down under the water in an instant. If she had blinked she would have missed it. Sudden fear gripped her heart. _There was something in the water._ Some of the remaining shinobi realized this as well and started to sprint to safety. Others too slow got pulled under one after the other. Those who couldn't move due to injury were left alone in favour of those running.

Most made it to safety. They only lost three more. Tsunade's fists clenched, what the hell was going on.

OOO

Naruto was exhausted. More so than that. He had never been so tired in his life. Every inch of his body screamed in protest as he continued to fight and make clones to replace those taken down. He was relying solely on the fox's chakra now and the red chakra swirling around him chaotically proved it. Naruto grabbed a random stone ninja by his hair and forced his head down as hard as he could into his rising knee, spraying blood all over his pants as the ninja slacked in his grip unconscious. A yell made him look to his left to see a sound nin charging him, reacting on instinct, he threw the body of the unconscious stone nin at him. The sound nin faltered under the sudden impact and weight before sinking into the water below. Naruto didn't notice, already on to another enemy nin.

The anbu, though having taken out more ninja than Naruto had been able to, weren't faring much better. Unlike Naruto, they did not have the fox or any other secondary chakra source to fall back on. They were nearing their limits, and it was starting to show. Just as Naruto had thrown the ninja in his arms at the other charging nin, one of the anbu was overwhelmed by a group of stone nin – at least ten of them, all of them dog piling him and beating him into submission. The anbu nearest to the fallen anbu noticed and quickly set a fire jutsu on the pile of ninja's, burning those on top and those trapped inside, causing those who could to roll into the water screaming in pain.

Using his chakra enhanced claws, Naruto clawed a stone nin's face off, digging his claws into the man's cheek and planting his feet on his chest, pushing off him and towards an unsuspecting nin punching him across the face and then using his now fully formed tail grab a kunoichi by the waist and throw her into a group of charging nins. He let out loud roar before attacking the next set of ninja's.

OOO

Tsunade's mind was in overdrive. There was something in the water, that much was certain. But it was only one thing, so it could only go after one person at a time. But what was it? Why was there only one of it? And was dragging her ninja under water all it could do? Or was it just toying with them?

A frightened yelp made her turn to her left where another one of her ninja's was pulled off from the roof and into the water, then another, and another. Tsunade felt a small tug on her foot and looked down to see a small patch of water around her foot. The next tug was harder and almost pulled her over, and she immediately jumped back, watching as the small puddle trailed down back into the pool around them. It clicked in her head. "STAY AWAY FROM THE WATER!" The damn thing was controlling the water.

Someone yelled her name and Tsunade turned around in time for a column of water to hit her in the chest and throw her off the roof into the pool.

OOO

Hajime walked calmly through the woods, Kimimaro trailing behind. They had not spoken since they left the hospital, and when Hajime looked back at Kimimaro's scowling face, he found that it was probably for the best that he keep quiet. Kimimaro looked ready to murder him at that moment, and though he doubted that Kimimaro could defeat him in battle, he'd rather not take the chance. After all, he and Kimimaro were going to be partners from now on and it wouldn't do to start off their partnership with a fight.

Kimimaro stopped, and Hajime, noticing that there were no more footsteps behind him, stopped as well and looked at Kimimaro. The Kaguya was looking behind them, back towards Konoha. "There is a battle going on, isn't there? That's why you came for me."

Hajime blinked, straining his ears until he heard the faint sounds of a battle on the wind that was no doubt coming from Konoha. He smiled. "Well," Kimimaro turned to him again, glaring. "I couldn't just leave you to _die_ Kimimaro-chan."

"Don't call me that."

"Konoha being destroyed is a vital part in our plan, you see." He continued, ignoring Kimimaro's protest. "Konoha holds too many ninjas with too much potential, and was starting to do more than just poke its nose into our business."

Kimimaro's glare lessened when he saw it had no effect. "And what makes you think I'm going to join Akatsuki, Seiko? Why should I?"

Hajime smiled at him. "Because," he said, "you have nowhere else to go."

As he said that Zetsu – the spy of Akatsuki with a split personality and plant-like features – appeared from out of a nearby tree. He looked briefly at Kimimaro then focused his attention on Hajime.

"_**Tobi is on his way to… escort the Kaguya to headquarters. Itachi is on his way to collect the nine-tails. You are to finish your business in Konoha and return to base immediately after.**__ No straggling."_

Hajime laughed, "Hai, hai." He turned to Kimimaro, still chuckling. "Well, Kimi-chan, this is goodbye for now. Go get settled in, alright?" Not really waiting for an answer he waved and jumped into the trees heading towards Konoha.

Kimimaro contemplated following him then decided against it. The way the plant guy kept looking at him was unnerving enough to make him stay put. But he did briefly wonder which poor person Seiko had trapped in another of his exquisite lies.

OOO

Hinata was having fun. Perhaps she was having too much fun, but who knew that helping to bring down the great Konoha would be so… so… _invigorating_? Hinata laughed as she pulled the struggling Tsunade deeper under the water. Laughing turned out to be a bad move however, as it caused bubbles to escape and Tsunade, acting merely on instinct, sent a chakra enhanced punch right at her face.

Hinata saw the punch coming, slowed by the water around them, but didn't move away, believing that it would merely pass through her. It didn't.

She let out an uncharacteristic yelp as she was forced to let go of the sannin, clutching at her nose in pain. When her vision cleared Tsunade was just breaking the surface. Hinata frowned.

Of course she should have known that taking down the sannin wouldn't be that easy. And she really should have foreseen the effect Tsunade's attack would have had on her compared to other normal ones, but did it have to hurt so much?

By the time Tsunade had taken one good breath, Hinata was right in front of her, pressing one watery hand against her face and forcing her back down. Hinata ignored the ninja diving to aid their leader, and twisted around to behind Tsunade to avoid her deadly punches. Tsunade continued to struggle realizing that only chakra blows affected her captor and releasing chakra in every way she could think of in her position.

Hinata had had enough. Tired of the sannin's struggles she shoved as much water as she could up her nostrils. Tsunade let out a muted scream of pain before slacking in Hinata's arms, and Hinata – ignoring the various shinobi trying to dive deep enough to reach them – tightened her hold on the slug sannin and sped off through the water towards the wall.

OOO

From where he stood at the edge of the forest, Orochimaru was blind to all that was happening inside those walls. That didn't stop him from tasting victory, from touching the very tip of it with his well manicured nails. Orochimaru knew a won battle when he saw one, and this one showed all the signs of a comfortable, easy win.

It was almost unbelievable; almost. But it only made sense that in the end he would win. He had been planning this day for so long; even before he had joined Akatsuki; before he had fled this very village at the discovery of his human experiments he had been planning its downfall. He could barely contain his glee and the unrestrained grin on his face was scaring many of his subordinates. But that didn't matter, because he was here, he had done it, he **won**.

The attack with Suna had been a failure, yes, but it had not been a worthless battle. He had taken the old fool, Sarutobi's life and weakened the village's already weak defenses. He had acquired the Uchiha for a vessel, a vessel that was simply waiting back at the Sound base for his return; a body which he would take as soon as he was done with this village. And he had found Tsunade. Being forced into finding her could not have turned out any better for him.

If he had not been forced to find her, he would not have known before-hand that she was to be Godaime; he would not have seen that the perfect chance to strike was approaching and he would not have set up his already endangered spies in Konoha.

If his spies had not been in Konoha, then he would have never known about the unappreciated Hyuuga heiress and her sudden disappearance. He would have never taken interest in her, and would have never put in the effort to have her hate Konoha as he did, and make her feel welcome in his presence. And if that had not happened, then he wouldn't be here right now, reveling in the drizzle of certain, unchallenged victory.

Of course, there was still the matter of that two-faced fly, Seiko. The fact that an Akatsuki member was involved in this, especially him, was not a pleasant, worry-free thought. Seiko was a master of disguise; the last of a forgotten blood-line with the ability to change their physical features to suit their needs. He had been there, with Pein, from the very beginning, training in the forgotten ways of his ancestors, waiting to come into play. And frankly, Orochimaru hated him. He was an annoying, lying, piece of trash that wasn't worth scraping off the side pavement. And though Orochimaru had played with the idea of taking him for a future vessel, he had given up the idea once he saw how protective Pein was of him.

Yes, the idea of Seiko and Akatsuki having a hand in his glory did not sit well with him at all.

His thoughts were cut short when the signal came. The prone, defenseless body of his old teammate was thrown over the wall and all previous doubts were cast aside as he basked in the glory that was now, truly now, his. He nodded to one of his subordinates beside him and she nodded back and spoke a single word into the communication device looped around her ear.

The walls were blown.

OOO

Naruto was forced back from the force of the explosion then pulled forward when the water started to fall away. He had seen when Tsunade's body had been thrown over the wall, expelled quite suddenly from the waters at a speed that seemed unreal and much too sudden. Time froze for him as the water glistened off her still body and her still forming wrinkles were exposed and shown off in the light, then time went cruelly fast and her body vanished behind the wall.

He didn't even have time to call out her name before the wall was blown, killing most of the enemy shinobi as well as two or three anbu. He didn't have time to scream as the water which had shifted back in the explosion suddenly lurched forward. And he could only blink in surprise when he was pulled under water by hands gripped around his ankles and he came face to face with the same watery figure that had stopped Sasuke's deadly attack on him all those years ago at the Valley of the End.

Hinata pulled him through the rushing water, dragging him one way as the water tried to pull him in the other. He felt like he was being ripped in two. He felt ready to kill. Kyuubi's chakra was flowing through his veins with all the power of a speeding drunkard on a cloudless, cop-free night. He was mad. He was mad at Hinata. _She_ had killed Sakura, _she_ had killed Neji, _she_ had thrown Tsunade over that wall like a rag doll not worth playing with, _she, __**she**_ was reason things had gotten so bad; why Konoha was losing; why he was losing all of his precious people along with it.

In his Kyuubi-enhanced state all of these thoughts made its way through his head, and the only thing that registered was to _kill_. Kill Hinata. Kill the thing holding onto him. Naruto slowly reached a chakra covered arm toward the person who was probably saving his life at the moment; forcing it through the speeding currents trying to kill them both towards his captor. Hinata looked back at him only to find her face covered suddenly with hot, fiery chakra. She made to scream only to find the chakra cooking her insides. She could actually feel herself boiling.

Hinata instinctively let go and pushed herself away from him, feeling but not really connecting it as she lost her concentration on the jutsu and solidified. But she still felt hot, she still felt _too_ hot, and in her hazy pain filled mind she could imagine how the steam would be rolling off her if she was not currently submerged. Somewhere else in her mind the thought registered that she was now being pulled along the harsh current, and had no way to lessen the impending impact. Somewhere…

Then the glare of the sun was in her face and she felt herself flying. She turned slightly and could see the rushing river that had not been there at the start of the attack, and Hinata had the feeling as she fell closer to the dangerous waters, that she was being condemned for all her sins and wrongdoings, and that hell wasn't a very nice place, and she didn't want to go there. Then she hit the water and her world turned black. She barely noticed as the edges of her vision dimmed, that nowhere in her fall had she seen Naruto.

Naruto had managed to grab onto the edges of the blown wall somewhere during the entire thing and had found that despite having something to hold on to, the rest of his body was still forcefully thrown to the side as the water continued to empty out. He had ended still tumbling through the air but instead of hitting water or hard unmerciful earth, he hit into a tree and stumbled down further smacking into and braking through a few branches until he felt himself stop and hang loosely. Barely able to keep the darkness in the corners of his eyes spreading he looked up to find his jacket had managed to catch onto a branch and he was now hanging loosely. He looked down, but it made him nauseous and he found he could no longer ward off unconsciousness. Before he was lost to the world, the faraway sound of the branch snapping reached his ears.

OOO

Hajime watched as the last trails of water drained from the ruined village. Then he watched silently as the sound went in for a final sweep to kill any remaining ninja. Then he stopped watching, nothing past this point mattered to him, his job was done. He was about to leave when he spotted her. Not really thinking about it, he jumped down and walked over to where she lay on her back, by the small stream that was only a raging torrent minutes ago.

Hinata had been the means to it all, and it had all been pure damn luck. It was luck that he had been the one to kill Hyuuga Hajime all those many years ago, it was also luck that he had kept the body in cold storage back at the base. He guessed he was just one lucky guy.

Slowly, his features shifted and changed into those he was originally born with. Hajime was once again, Seiko, and he breathed a sigh of relief now that it was all over. He had accomplished his mission, and Pein wouldn't be disappointed in him like he had feared.

Kneeling next to Hinata he lifted a cold hand and checked for a pulse then checked the base of her neck for one.

She was gone.

Seiko sighed. But it was probably for the best anyway. He figured that it had been nice to be looked up to like that, and to have made such a strong ninja, but in the end Hinata, like all ninja, had been a tool. The tool had done its job, and different tools would be needed for the next phase of their planning.

He brushed some of the wet hair away from her face and closed her eyes. "Bye Hina-chan."

Then he left.

Closer to the base he met with Itachi, carrying an unconscious Naruto on his back. With the ninth jinchuriki out of the way, life would be almost too easy for Akatsuki, he thought. And for a brief moment he regretted completing the mission.

But it was only a brief moment

O -- End -- O

**K: **… How do you end this anyway? I know the ending was kind of vague, but that's the plan. The world is bigger than Hinata, and though this story ends with her, the world around her **does** continue. And now that this chapter is done (the very day before school starts for me, mind you) I only have the epilogue, which will most likely be short.

Maybe the epilogue will properly tell what happened after Hinata's death; maybe it will release tension with some light (but pitiful) attempt at humour. Who knows? I sure as hell don't.

But I'm going into Grade 10 now, a scary prospect as my books are getting HUGE and I fear for my recently fixed bag, so I might not be able to get the epilogue in till around Christmas depending on how much work we get.

And I know some (if not all) of you are probably pissed off at me for this ending. Please understand. The situations might have changed and the way certain things were done from the original also changed, but the ending is still the same. I had always, from the very beginning, planned for Hinata to end up dead, and unredeemed. Hence this story being in the **tragedy **category. Naruto had also originally been planned to have died, but he got lucky since I included Akatsuki as the mastermind of this plan; does he end up escaping Akatsuki, or does someone, maybe Gaara, save him in time? I DO NOT KNOW. Please do not ask.

And finally, the battle. I guess it might seem too… easy, to you. But I can't really think of anything complicated that wouldn't change up the story and make it longer, and I am ready to wash my hands of W3GB and move on. Hinata might have seemed powerful, but she was low on chakra, Tsunade might have seemed to have gone down too easy but she was out of her element. Who the hell teaches people to fight underwater?? Her punches were sluggish and not very effective, and she was taken by surprise.

And finally, Hajime/Seiko. We finally know just who the hell he is and what his purpose was. Did he ever truly care for Hinata? I don't know. Did Hinata ever have an older brother named Hajime? Yes, she did, but Seiko killed him years ago and kept his body as a kind of trophy or whatever he did with it.

If I haven't covered all of your questions, feel free to ask. I'll try my best to answer them, either to you personally, or in the epilogue.

And for all those who have stuck with me through from the very beginning, or if you came in somewhere in the middle or at the very end. Thank you for reading. Special thanks to all those who reviewed. Your reviews pushed me to continue on even though I was getting antsy and wanting to move on to other stories.

Love ya! ;)

K-promises-fall


	11. EPILOGUE

Hello again. None of you reviewed chapter ten… if you're even still reading. Which hurts me. If you hate how I ended it at least tell me so I can stop feeling like you just abandoned me. Anyway. Here's the epilogue as promised. I decided to go the serious route to explain the whole reason things turned out the way they did.

**Update: **I completely forgot about writing this. I'm kind of moving out of the Naruto fandom and into the Mai Hime fandom… so my mind's been occupied. Sorry this took so long guys. I have no excuse. Anyway, this last update is for **catchysummer**, I never would have written this if it wasn't for their very recent adding of this to their story alerts so… enjoy. It won't be long.

OOO

Seiko had long been a pupil of Pein. He had carried out various missions and tasks for his master with something very similar to what Kimimaro had felt towards Orochimaru. He never failed. Not once did he ever look back with anything but a satisfactory smirk at how he had been of use to his master. He was a tool. Well kept and sharpened so that the lightest touch could draw blood. As all tools, he acted only for the person who handled him. That person was Pein; that person was god.

He couldn't help but look back on his most recent mission however. The one that had taken so many years to complete and had involved the carving of his own tool.

His face was curiously blank as he though about the tool he had discarded and left to rust away by the dwindling stream. Hyuuga Hinata. Such a curious person. So torn and broken, and at first, so very dull. Seiko hadn't seen a dull and brittle blade when he looked at her though; despite how weak she had been he had seen more. He had seen the potential in her, and the very fragile hold on her sanity that kept her on the straight path. All she needed was a little push.

What great luck. He had found the tool he needed to complete his mission, and a tool that fit in so well with all his plans. Hyuuga Hajime, her older brother had been a victim of his long ago when they had accidentally crossed paths. He had thought that incident a hindrance at the time, but how useful it had come to be. He had taken the form of Hyuuga Hajime, and when Hinata had run from the village, crying and her soul shattered he had placed himself at the end of her dark tunnel and become her light. He had been gentle and understanding and strict and merciless. He had been her support when she was ready to collapse. He played into her fantasies and became everything she wanted him to be.

It had been simple. Gaining her trust came as soon as she started to see the results of their training, strengthening that trust was as simple as lending a listening ear as she whispered stories of the antics of the nine-tail's container at night. Her loyalty was garnered by teaching her the lessons of life, and letting her learn with her own intuition how to be a ninja. She had become such a wonderful piece of weaponry.

Still all weapons had its flaws, and Seiko knew he could not make her too perfect. A good tool she had to be, but she also had to be a tool that could be easily gotten rid of. That was when things had gotten hard. In playing Hajime, he had become what Hajime never was. He had become the older brother of Hyuuga Hinata. Protecting her from Orochimaru became a natural reaction rather than a calculated deduction. Wanting her to improve and grow into someone who could be proud of herself became a want rather than a mere need. He did not want her to die.

Still, it was good that she had.

Pein would not have accepted her. Pein would not have been pleased with him for allowing her to live. Hinata was loyal to him, but not to Pein. And even if she had been accepted. Akatsuki was no place for a mere girl.

She had died, and that was good.

Seiko could put all of this behind him now. He could wipe it from his memory banks and move on, continuing to serve his master until the time came that he would no longer be needed. He too would eventually be discarded and left to rust in the dirt.

Would he stay with his master then…? He believed he might. He believed he would. Kimimaro might try to talk him out of it, but would he follow him? Would he listen and forsake his master as he had told Kimimaro to do once before? He didn't think so.

The smirk finally found its home on his face. He had completed his mission, with little hindrance.

Pein would be proud.

**END**

Well, there it is, an epilogue. Written in about 10-15 minutes. I can finally close the book on this one and move on.

You might see me in the Naruto section from time to time, but I doubt for anything permanent.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this. I'll try and work on planning some of those other Naruto fics, some of them have me really excited, but they won't be up anytime soon.

Ja ne.

One last review couldn't hurt could it?

**K-promises-fall ;)**


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